DAY'S EYES AND AURORA COLLECTIVE #APHELION

Aphelion marks the point when the sun is furthest from the Earth. In collaboration with Spit and Sawdust, the artists Johana Hartwig and Anthony Shapland and the Aurora Trinity Collective we celebrated this event with a festival at the Global Gardens site.

The morning began at dawn with an installation piece ‘As clear as the day is long’ by Johana Hartwig to mark the rising of the sun. This first hour is a chance to experience it in the quiet stillness of the morning while there is no other activity in the garden. The installation included three pieces based and was followed with the sharing of daisy tea and breakfast. Those who made it were rewarded for getting up so early with beautiful golden light at the site.

Throughout the day, there were a range of workshops including a workshop making felt wildlife homes with the amazing Aurora Trinity Collective. Aurora Trinity Collective are a creative collective who share their skills and knowledge at a textile-based weekly class running at The Trinity Centre.

Weaver and artist Imogen Higgins also led a willow-waving workshop making giant bees.

Sound geographer and artist Dr. Jonathan Prior synced up his microphone so we could listen to ants communicating with each other in the wood pile. There were also a number of actions happening through the day from pickling to gardening.

In the middle of the day we shared a vegan lunch which included sprouted mung bean and buckwheat salad, pickled cucumber and radish salad, fava bean humous and cake.

At 4.30pm Johana Hartwig led a walk to Spit and Sawdust with some watery pauses making contact with Roath brook. This process helped us think about access points along the route and imagine possibilities of a brook accessible throughout its passage.

At Spit and Sawdust, we watched Anthony Shapland's installation piece ‘Between the Dog and the Wolf’, a collection of works and observations, influences and ideas around the shift from day to night. Between the Dog and the Wolf is more like a series of notes than a finished work, some of them recurring thoughts, others are tangents or dead-end sentences.

Alongside the installation, the cob-oven was lit up and Jack and Tom baked some delicious flatbreads - thanks Riverside Sourdough for the dough - served alongside a delicious stew.

This collective sharing of food, pausing to listen and walking together was a chance to pause and ponder the dark and light, day and night, the opposites, extremes, natural cycles, patterns and rhythms of our world.

Thanks so much to the National Lottery Community Fund Wales and the Oakdale Trust for making it possible. [endif]