‘A Water That Cleft The Strand’  2024. 

As part of the Arts Council England funded artist led group show 'Seeing Things', The Edge, Wigan.

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Artists: Alistair Woods, Ellie Towers, Dustin Lyon, Klaire Doyle, Ula Fung, Anna FC Smith, Matthew Wood, Simon Plum, George Hale

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Mixed media sculpture: Printed cotton, Metal, Wood and Ceramic.

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This works takes inspiration from the river Douglas that runs alongside The Edge and the mediaeval poem The Pearl by Gawain poet, in which a man falls asleep by a river and wakes to see his deceased child on the other side but is unable to reach her. In a mistake made by the manuscript painter, the outstretched figure of the man pointing to his child was painted over with water, accidentally emphasising the river as an ethereal boundary. The river becomes a veil to a world beyond, a barrier to a dimension close but unreachable to the living. The name Douglas means dark water, representing the unknown. This concept of the river has haunted me since experiencing grief, alongwith its flowing, infinite and transformative nature. In mediaeval manuscripts the firmament and water are depicted in similar ways both acting as a liminal portal and this sculptural work manifests that portal in the gallery.