A Postcard from Ynys Môn.
As a Bard on the Public Map Platform, I was given the opportunity to explore how my own creative research practice could feed into a much larger, more formal research structure, while simultaneously creating a project within a project through Lle Llais and the people who visited it.
As Lle Llais moved around the Island over the summer, I moved with it, meeting a steady stream of people of all ages, and inviting them to make a postcard of a good place on the island. I was stationed within one of the bentwood structures, weaving the postcards into the loom as they were created. At first, the loom looked sparse, a few cards fluttering in the breeze, but as the Lle Llais journey continued, the postcards grew and grew, creating not only a bristling structure of family memories, but a huge list of places on the island that children and families love.
The postcard activity was very popular, and it quickly became a family activity, generating conversations where parents and kids thought about the places they love together.
Each postcard became a snapshot of a shared family memory. Many focussed on beaches, like collecting sea glass, paddleboarding, eating ice-cream and swimming. The beaches are important to the holiday makers, of course, but are also special to the locals who go there out of season too, to walk their dogs and breathe the air when it is cold and grey and wintery.
Some people felt torn when I asked if they were local to Ynys Môn. I met many people from the closer English cities, like Liverpool or Manchester, who come to North Wales not just every holiday, but every weekend when they can. They shared with me how they feel that Ynys Môn is part of them and is just as important to their lives and their family story as the place where they live.
Some postcards carried bigger stories, such as the young girl who named the pub, Tafarn Y Iowerth as her favourite place on Ynys Môn. When I asked her if she went to the pub often, she explained that the Iowerth has all sorts of things happening there. A little more conversation revealed that the Tafarn Y Iowerth in Bryngwran is a community owned pub. Alongside the licenced bar and restaurant, they are also a community hub, offering activities and support for all ages in the centre of the village.
One day, I received a postcard of Holyhead High School, with a list of reasons on the back explaining why it is a good place’
My favourite place is my school. There are too many reasons to list them all.
- I am liked there
- I enjoy learning
- I can learn about other people’s experiences
The fact that Holyhead High School has made someone feel like this warmed my heart.
Over16 days across the summer holidays, in four dramatically different landscapes, I collected around 200 postcards from diverse groups of visitors to Lle Llais events. The good places of Ynys Môn have been noted and they include beauty spots, attractions, back gardens, skate-parks, playgrounds, secret beaches and much more. They tell stories of lives lived by the sea, informed by landscape, community and a sense of Cynefin that defies geographical boundaries.
As for the map. The postcards become a layer of positive, situated memories. People answered for themselves in the moment, a record of summer 2024, which is already a memory as the nights draw in. The cards document the places that were in people’s minds and hearts this year, and they are the beginnings of a list of places to be cared for and considered in the future.
I am a socially engaged artist, based in Bethesda, on the edge of Eryri. My work is concerned with exploring relationships between people, places and things by using light-touch, creative engagements as starting points for conversations, and personal and collaborative mapping as a way of making sense of things.