AN ARTIST who crawled 5.5 miles through the Cambrian Mountains wearing a sheep fleece and 14 GoPro cameras during the summer and autumn last year reveals the results of her efforts in a major new exhibition opening at the Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, this Saturday, April 14.

Miranda Whall’s ‘Crossed Paths’ includes a film installation which tells a compelling story of a mountain where the narrative is told from the legs, arms, hands, head, back, stomach and mouth of a human/sheep, thereby highlighting that each have shaped the landscape we see today and both have a role to play in shaping its future.

It is hoped that the presentation of a de-centred and enactive perspective will enable and contribute to a discussion on this particular mountain and a wider discussion on mountain ecosystems; environment and culture.

‘Crossed Paths’ comprises three projects by Cardiff-born, but Aberystwyth-based, Miranda, taking place between 2017 and 2021 in Wales, Scotland and France. These three projects bring together film, performance and the body in motion, mountain and upland ecology: each project telling a story of a mountain from a different human/animal perspective.

Oriel Davies presents the Welsh component in an immersive multi-media installation and contextual exhibition formed between the artist and a number of collaborators, contributors and scientists, each contributing to a non-representational and ecological response to the Elenydd Special Area of Conservation, Cambrian Mountains in Mid Wales.

Whall began her crawl in the peat and heather moorlands high up at Pen y Garn, and then moved down through the acid grasslands and peaty Molinia/rush bogs, the improved pastures and managed farmlands to finally reach the Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre in Cwmystwyth. As a kind of cyborg sheep/human she attempted to document, experience and understand the mountain, its inhabitants and its matter, in relation to her body, moving in an altered state through the landscape.

Writing in Miranda’s accompanying exhibition publication, movement artist Simon Whitehead marks the act of crawling as a pre-cursor to our later two-footed engagement with the ground, while referencing Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’ the artist seeks to find an alternative way ‘in’ to see, feel and understand the environment both for her and us as viewers.

The exhibition features discussions by the researchers at Pwllpeiran, alongside creative responses to the landscape from eight local musicians including: Ric Lloyd, Harriet Earis, Tim Noble, Diarmuid Johnson, Jasper Salmon, Toby Hay, Angharad Davies and Sam Christie. Contributions have also been made by poet Zoe Skoulding, writer Phil Smith, photographer Hannah Mann and Rhys Thwaites-Jones of Fforest Films who has made a documentary film about the project and drawings by the artist’s family. For visitors there is the opportunity to access a landscape ‘deeply’, to experience it in close proximity and through a variety of disciplines from a non–representational perspective. Through the exhibition they will learn about the upland management programme and the micro and macroscopic details of this rich and significant bio-diverse landscape.

Between 4 and 5.30pm at the opening this Saturday there will be a panel discussion with presentations and wider discussions around the project with Dr Mariecia Fraser and John Davies of Pwllpeiran Upland Research Platform, Abersytwyth University; Dr Zoe Skoulding, director of Creative Writing and deputy head of school, Bangor University; Iliyana Nedkova, creative director for contemporary art at Horsecross Arts, Perth, Scotland; Alex Boyd Jones, curator for Oriel Davies and Miranda Whall herself.

The exhibition launch will follow between 6 and 8pm. Refreshments will be available and all welcome.

During the course of the exhibition, a ‘Field Trip’ is being organised for Saturday, May 26, between 2 and 5pm, starting and finishing at the Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre, Cwmystwth, Aberystwyth. The creative walk will follow Miranda’s crawling route with discussions, presentations and readings along the way. Places are limited and for booking and further information go to; desk@orieldavies.org or call 01686 625041.