Poems explore life of women in the 1920s
THIS week we talk to Ness Owen, who is one of the 61 artists involved in a diverse creative event at a house in Anglesey.
Q What are you best known for?
A I am a writer and a FE lecturer who works in Coleg Menai. My poems and short stories have been published widely in anthologies and journals including in Poetry Wales, Red Poets, Mslexia, Arachne Press, Mother’s Milk Books and Three Drops Press. My short plays have been staged in theatres, bars and art centres throughout Wales. Also, my poetry collection “Mamiaith” will be published by Arachne Press in August this year. Most of the poems were written in English but there are five Welsh poems included with translations.
Q Tell us about your exhibition
A I am one of the creatives taking part in
the Sui Generis - The Possibilities of a House exhibition in Plas Bodfa, Llangoed.
Plas Bodfa certainly is an imposing building, high up in Llangoed, which is worth visiting for its views alone. On my first visit on a windy February morning this year, I was fascinated by it.
I was immediately drawn to the servant stairs that led to the kitchen. They are completely hidden by a door on the landing and so very small. I could imagine the amount of times these stairs must have been used by the staff of a country house. I also knew that my Nain and one of her sisters worked in a large house in Llangoed in the 1920s though I’m not sure which one but they had spoken about the long hours and heavy workload expected of domestic workers at the time which is very far from the romanticised view of domestic service.
The era in which the manor house was built (the 1920s) was also a fascinating time particularly for women with some women having the vote in 1918 and the changes after the end of the war.
Many women who had worked in male dominated jobs during the war and had perhaps experienced a taste of another life, had to return to their old work afterwards.
Also the Women’s peace movement was growing with nearly 400,000 Welsh women signing a peace petition (Yr Apêl) in 1924 and later in 1926, 2,000 women beginning a peace pilgrimage from Penygroes through North Wales.
This is a history we should be proud of and the history we should be teaching.
I visited the archives to read transcriptions of interviews with Anglesey and Gwynedd women who were working in domestic service in the 1920s talking about their lives and how they felt about their work and to see the photographs and routes of the Women’s Peace Pilgrimage.
We were asked to choose from a number of themes before starting our work and I decided to follow the themes of past lives and walls.
Using these themes and my own research, I have written a series of poems in Welsh and English about how a young domestic servant might have felt living in Plas Bodfa at the time it was built and the awakening of the women’s peace movement.
I chose to base my pieces in Plas Bodfa’s kitchen and on the servant stairs where the poems and installation will be displayed.
It was also a great experience to have some of the poems made into a short video which was filmed by professional filmmaker and videographer Morag Livingstone together with singing by Glesni Rhys Jones.
The video will be played on a screen during the exhibition.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing all the pieces filling the house. An exhibition with so many creatives involved working across the arts will be an exhibition not to be missed. It will be part of Anglesey Arts Weeks, Open Studios and promises to be totally unique experience. I’m very excited to be a part of it and all credit to Julie Upmeyer for the initial idea. It runs from April 13 to April 28.
Q What can people expect?
A A mixture of creative responses from local and international creatives including: Art, poetry, spoken word, photography, performance, film and more.
Q What’s next for you? What are you working on, or what do you plan to work on?
A Launch of my poetry collection Mamiaith in the Ucheldre, Holyhead on August 9th at 7pm.