Alice Briggs spent time in Cwm Elan as artist in residence during 2022. The Cambrian mountains today have been described harshly as a ‘white desert’, devoid of beauty, nature and life - but for the artist they are a place of sanctuary and ‘hiraeth’. In our increasingly polarised society, we struggle more and more with the idea of both/and, that one perspective can simultaneously be as true and valid as another. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so in this case the landscape is both wild/tamed, a desert/sanctuary, a point of extraction/immersion. The multiple layers of the historical, ecological and geographical landscape also became a metaphor for Alice in her life, at a point of personal change, grief and transformation. How the same memory can be recalled with infinite subjectivities; that lives seemingly experienced together can lead to understanding, but also misunderstanding.

 

With thanks to g39 gallery, Cardiff, the Freelands Foundation, Elan Valley Trust and Arts Council of Wales