Sod this! We thought, on 6th July.

With zero going on in the ‘formal’ art world, the incorrigiable spirt of the north west wales creatives set about making our own format for showing work within the COVID-19 restrictions. About 30 of us pulled the happening together (under the inspirational leadership/vision of Anna Powell and Sarah Pagoda) in just 6 weeks, with zero budget and without any of the bureaucracy required by organisations-formerly-known-to-fund-the-arts. The Surrealist Saffaru rocked Bangor and Porthaethwy (Menai Bridge) with a safari of installations, performances, exhibitions that explored the surrealist legacy in North West Wales while being strict with sanitiser and face masks.

There was Ekrphrastic Poetry, a Surrealist Dark Room, a Midnight Library and a Cacti Orgy amongst loads more. Those of you on facebook can see some of the stuff here or see here for a video of the hard hitting (!) disembowlment of surrealism or the recreation of the monty python fish slap sketch.

Crwydro Crone Cast - Base Becoming

Our contribution (Wanda Zyborska, Lisa Hudson and I) was a durational (scary? liberating?) performance as XSexcentenary around ‘base becoming’ as crones. We were joined by Samina Ali and Rhona Bowey, united with a basic ‘script’ but otherwise without rehearsal. I filmed the event on an old Go-pro camera attached to my skirt - and a new genre of Go-pro films emerged :)

See the film here, with the script, photos, reflections and feedback

After Crone Cast, Sarah Pagoda said: “Thank you again for that amazing performance that was really triggering discussion afterwards. I admire all of you endlessly for the stamina you demonstrated in that performance and in the permanent transformation of your „persona“ (?) and the relationships between them. Art History in the making and I was there!”

We think there is more to be done with the Crone Cast. We will be back! The next Surrealismo event will be in May 2021.