Coalition of the Willing

Fences and boundaries that criss cross the hills and valleys of Wales and Britain are often overlooked, both metaphorically and literally, yet they are physically an obtrusive element within our environment. Here where I live in Ceredigion, I see them sparsely drawing lines across hills or broken down and merging with nature in unexpected ways - patched, and strangely bridging both the animate and inanimate - becoming curious metaphors for our coexistence with our surroundings and the existential conundrum that faces all human existence. However on a more mundane, but perhaps more prosaic level, they bear witness to the passing of time and the parallel yet intrinsically linked worlds of the man-made and natural environment.

Like a votive offering, they also serve as reminders of the individuals who patched and maintained these often eccentric boundaries.

(Small pieces of twine in various colours coupled with twists of wire - the fence holding aloft fence posts long rotted out at the base - sticks now left swinging where twine used to brace a fence to a branch. Stock fence pushed, pulled and crushed - rolls of wire rusted red-brown, part submerged in moss, together with miniature clouds of tufted wool left by itchy sheep. small green islands of moss, grass and bilberries in the rotted top of posts, wire twisted tight with a rock as a lever).