Crone Cast

introduction

Bydd Crone Cast, o'r hen air Nordig kasta, ar ffurf ac arolwg
- yn siâp, heb ffurf wedi'i wrthdroi, yn ddeunydd wedi'i ffurfio tu fewn i blisgyn y corff, y wyneb allanol y gragen neu sgerbwd, lapied o bridd.

Crone Cast, from Old Norse kasta, will be in form and appearance
– an unfixed twist or distortion of shape, material formed in a body cavity, the external surface of shell or skeleton, a coil of earth.

Crone Cast is a collective of artists identifying as old/older women, based in North Wales, arising from Wanda Zyborska's twelve years of research into reinventing becoming the withered. Together, Zyborska, Lisa Hudson, Lindsey Colbourne, Rhona Bowey, Steph Shipley, Samina Ali, Emily Meilleur, Kar Rowson and others, explore ageing, power, identity, eccentricity and merging with the more-than-human as a process of becoming, in symbiosis with the precariousness of our times.

Responding and experimenting with the conditions of the pandemic, in the context of climate change, societal and eco-system collapse, we are re- imagining crone as noticed, seen and heard, whilst noticing, looking and listening.

Crone Cast is currently developing a series of episodes, created, performed and filmed in different places and situations, with various human and more-than-human collaborators and participants. In lockdown 2020, the first episode, Crwydro Crone Cast - Base Becoming, saw us casting off unwanted baggage and making kin with the forest and its creatures. In early summer 2021, Hag Haf Ha Ha re-entered and explored the town centre, seeking small utopic places of sustainable regeneration, tending and befriending weeds growing in cracks, and connecting with people through gifts of seedlings and cakes.

In winter 2021 Hagira at Dinas Dinlle is an expedition to the edge of the land, on the margin of where we live, travelling somewhere and nowhere, becoming sand, bird, wind and storm. We are battling our own and the planet's extinction. This third outing is a long journey. We don't know where we are going but we are going bravely and with distinction…

See documentation of our episodes below (most recent first).

We are delighted to have recently been featured by Culture Colony (Hag Haf Ha Ha) and by Marc Rees/Wales Arts International (Hagira)

Map o Gymru: Mappening Happening

Drudwy Not \\ Starling Not // Mynediad Not \\ Access Not // Safle Bws Dim \\ bus stop not
Llyn alaw, October 2024

Rhan o /Part of Sgwrs Chwilgar - Curious Conversation: [Sut i fynd] i mewn ac allan o’r cabinet. [How to get] into and out of the cabinet

Coedwig yn Dod i Pontio - Forest Comes to Pontio: May 2023

For 3 month residency Ysgol Arbrofol Dod At Ein Coed Utopias Bach Experimental Tree Sense School at Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre in Bangor, in spring 2023, the Crones were becoming ancient tree. We hosted two weeks of the Experimental Treesense School - Cylch 4: Crone Cast a’r Hynafiad - Crone Cast and the Ancients, exploring ways of reinventing becoming old woman (Crone) whilst asking the question:

“How can we become together with crones and ancient trees?”

“Sut allwn ni dyfu gyda’n gilydd gyda hen wrach a choed hynafol?”

In western culture people sometimes fear and ignore ancient trees and women.  In stories old women are depicted as hags and witches, old trees and woodlands as dark, dangerous and magical places. Ancient trees are given scary faces, grasping hands and tangling roots. We are hoping that archetypal memories and connections will help us to join and become with ancient trees, exploring the complexity of our cultural history as well as the joy and richness of our becoming. The older the tree, the more vital to wildlife it becomes (Woodland Trust). Ancient oaks support at least 2,300 other species, 326 of them completely dependent on the oak. There are 115 living ancient oaks in England, and only 98 in the rest of Europe, including Wales and Scotland.

Together with ancient trees Crone Cast continues the quest for transmutation, seeking out the spaces between species, the liminal, borderline areas between the human and otherness, above and below the skin.

At the end of the residency, we created Forest Comes to Pontio, performing alongside other participants in the Experimental School: Siarter y Coed - Charter of the Trees and Mudiad Mycelium Movement.

CRONE BORG: ll I’ll loll I’ll p I’ll I’ll l: AUGUST 2022

Mae Crone Cast yn ymweld â cheg ac anws y fetabolaeth, safn sy’n ymddangos fel archfarchnad. Yr is-destun yw diwedd y cyfnod clo, y normal newydd annormal, parhad y pandemig a dinistr parhaus y maes eco. Y safle yw archfarchnad newydd Aldi, ar Ffordd Caernarfon ym Mangor, rhwng MacDonalds a Dunelm. Mae'r hen wrachod braidd yn ddi-lun, a'u gwisgoedd braidd yn garpiog. Wedi eu haddurno â sbwriel, plastig du o ffensys weiren bigog sydd hanner ffordd i gael ei fetaboleiddio’n ficro-blastig, ac sy’n edrych yn dda. Bydd mathau eraill o wastraff plastig wedi eu meddalu a'u harddu gan amser a natur yn addurno ein cyrff a'n penwisgoedd blêr.

Crone Cast visit the mouth and anus of the metabolism, a maw, manifested as supermarket. The subtext is the end of lockdown, the non-new-normal, the continuation of the pandemic and the continued destruction of the eco sphere. The site is the new supermarket, Aldi, on Caernarfon Rd Bangor between MacDonalds and Dunelm. The crones are a bit shop soiled, their costumes a bit ragged. Embellished with tattered rubbish, black plastic from barbed wire fences that is halfway through metabolising into micro plastic, looking good with it. Other kinds of plastic waste softened and aesthetically improved by time and nature will adorn our carapaces and bedraggled headdresses.

Wanda Zyborska, Lisa Hudson, Steph Shipley, Rhona Bowey, Emily Meilleur, Kar Rowson, Lindsey Colbourne

This performance was part of Gwyl Metaboliaeth Festival

Documentation by Benjamin Cusden

Dinas Dinlle: October 2021

Hagira is an expedition to the edge of the land, on the margin of where we live, travelling somewhere and nowhere, becoming sand, bird, wind and storm. We are battling our own and the planet's extinction. This third outing is a long journey. We don't know where we are going but we are going bravely and with distinction…

Crone Cast are delighted to be featured in Marc Rees’ curated series #PethauBychain Wales Arts International’s response to climate change and future generations. See here In 2022, our film, Hagira, was shown on Conwy Suspension Bridge as part of the project the project Climate Change: Creative Conversations by National Trust Cymru, in partnership with Arts Council of Wales.

HAG HAF HA HA: June 2021

crwydro crone cast- base becoming: August 2020

Crwydro Crone Cast was Crone Cast’s first outing, exploring the erotic, base becoming with our non-human kin. Wanda, Lisa and I were joined by Samina Ali and Rhona Bowey at a performance as part of the Surrealist Saffaru weekend (exploring COVID performance possibilities). Without any rehearsal, we used a simple script above to take us (and I think I can speak for all of us) well beyond our comfort zones and what is acceptable behaviour for aging women… after the first 10 minutes, we got into full swinging liberation. We cast off all sorts of expectations and baggage, including for me, things about acceptable behaviour like ‘don’t draw attention to yourself’ and ‘put others first’. And we grew in strength as we collected and merged with our non-human kin, from branches and logs to seaweed and mud.

I think it is fair to say that our ‘audience’ (hunter? prey?), who stayed with us right to the end, a whole hour, might have found aspects challenging too. And I hope there was liberation for them ‘n’ all. Some of the comments we’ve received vary from ‘that was so dark’ to ‘scary’ to ‘it made me realise it could happen to any of us’, ‘the sounds you were making really drew us in’, ‘you were stunningly Croneish-wonderful pic (and exemplary social distancing, too!)’ and

“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!”

a participatory provocation

“Calling all crones, cantankerous cackling hags, witches, withering, wise, join us in our base becoming with the non-human, bring your indecency. Our cast, from Old Norse kasta, in form and appearance – an unfixed twist or distortion of shape, material formed in a diseased body cavity, the external surface of shell or skeleton, a coil of earth – collectively hunting in a pack, seeking smells, forecast and conjecture.

Our cast is crwydro, wandering, dropping and egesting, casting to the ground, casting a spell, casting our eyes, casting a shadow.

Walking Score:

• Hunt in a pack-cast in a wide sweep in search of a scent

• Cast your burdens and gather your non- human crone kin

• Twirl and cackle and grind indecently

Things

1. Twirling

2. Grinding

3. Casting

4. Collecting

5. Ashes and Grinding

6. Mud and arm flinging B words finale.

crwydro crone cast photos

With thanks to Huw Jones, Heather Hudson and Maggie