Not just a change of date for 2025

The sound has probably become very strange, especially if you don't spend much time in there - and not every year. For me, as I am there to listen, to body and everything it never seems odd, and the couple of times that are very loud and sharp, in isolation, never seem it in the whole. 

We can hear the work of the recording and re recording that Lou started (based on the work of Alvin Lucier). Lou last sang in 2012, so her singing with herself has been fading. You will hear what seems like church bells if you listen carefully. Even without singing being added, the bells of the breaks, the birdsong, the door banging, people coughing etc are layered on, we have a record of all the years.

Jake and I have talked over the last year or so about having a new voice, if we do, and there is someone who would do it, it would have to be a singing with Lou, not over Lou, we would need to fold up the years and return to an earlier recording.

So this year we will be stepping back in time with the sound.

We need to see how we feel about it....

So this is to let you know, you will hear more of Lou this year.

...It's making me think I'll get out the trousers I wore from the start until 2012!...

2025: May 23rd not 22nd!

with

small world theatre | theatr byd bychan

last year - 2022

It went gently. It was very comfortable and soft. J wasn't in the space as usual as he had a lot of work to do, T was with me for a lot of the time and no one else came. There were no knotty times of thinking too much about what to "do". 

I listened to the sound and the birds outside for 6 hours and think only once did my mind wander very briefly. T thought my movement was more fluid than he had seen. There was a little "play" with him as he walked around the space on a couple of occasions. 

During one on my own time I found myself moving in a very ballet way - lots of arm and sternum - that rather a Qigong way, it is a feeling that comes when doing some ballet but perhaps more people might understand the Qigong similarity!

Contentment was a feeling that came to me afterwards, and had a really good night's sleep. So a fulfilling, regenerative time. I've often thought I might find it difficult being on my own for a lot of the time and not being disciplined enough or something, but it wasn't the case. Perhaps not having done it since 2019 it was useful to not have other people. 

untitled: holy hiatus 5

Tuesday May 22 | Dydd Mawrth Mai 22

4 – 10.15 p.m | y.p
Small World Theatre | Canolfan Byd Bychan
Cardigan | Aberteifi


‘there is no path; we make the path by walking’
‘does dim llwybr; ni sy’n ei greu wrth gerdded’
Antonio Machado


This performative event explores how liminal space is created, experienced and shared, using repetitions of a phrase of movement and a 13^th century song over 6 hours.

Each event includes live vocal performance and playback of the previous year’s recording; this process amplifies the acoustic response of the space which slowly overwhelms the earlier recordings to form an extraordinary evolving soundscape.

Maura Hazelden was commissioned by Ruth Jones in 2008 to create a work for Holy Hiatus: a series of artworks and a symposium. In collaboration with Lou Laurens she created a six hour event using repetition and stillness in the Small World Centre, then newly completed.  untitled: holy hiatus is an annual ritual. This will the fifth year of the event.

You may attend at any time from 4 – 10.15 pm. The kitchen will be open for refreshments, and there will also be an exhibition of work from previous years.

Mae’r digwyddiad perfformiadol hwm yn dangos sut y gellir creu, profi a rhannu gofod trothwyol, trwy ddefnyddio cyfres o symudiadau a chân o’r  13 ganrif dros gyfnod o 6 awr.

Mae pob un digwyddiad yn cynnwys perfformiad lleisiol byw  a chwarae recordiad y flwyddyn flaenorol; mae’r broses yn chwyddo ymateb acwstig y gofod ac o dipyn i beth bydd yn goresgyn  y recordiad blaenorol i ffurfio llun rhyfeddol mewn sain.

Yn 2008 comisiynwyd Maura Hazelden gan Ruth Jones i greu darn o waith ar gyfer Holy Hiatus: cyfres o weithiau celf a symposiwm.  Trwy weithio ar y cyd gyda Lou Laurens creodd ddigwyddiad chwech awr gan ddefnyddio ail ddweud a llonyddwch Theatr Byd Bychan, a oedd bryd hynny’n newydd sbon.  Mae  untitled: holy hiatusyn ddigwyddiad blynyddol.  Hon fydd y pumed blwyddyn.

Gellir dod yma unrhyw bryd rhwng  4 – 10.15yp. Bydd lluniaeth ar gael yn ogystal ag arddangosfa o waith y blynyddoedd cynt.