about Speak to Me

19/10/21

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If somebody walks in here right now, they will think: wtf, they must be crazy, did they really hire these two?’ That’s what Robert commented after our first day installing ‘Speak to Me’ at Oriel y Bont, while I was fighting with the stuff and he was fighting with the formats.

He was right, though. It has been challenging putting everything together in just a few days, making sure to be respectful of environmental, physical and mental spaces, while being faithful to our project. Our friendship went through some rough patches; for months we didn’t argue about anything else except *the project*. And now everything has resulted in building bridges and walls.

Speak to me was started about two years ago by Barrie Llewelyn in Trefforest, Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. In January and February 2020, resettled Syrian and Sudanese refugees were partnered with local English and Welsh speakers to work together in a series of creative writing and speaking workshops in which they responded to prompts about celebration, food and friendship.

Robert and I attended the workshops with the aim of condensing the whole project into an exhibition. During those five weeks we absorbed as much as we could from the participants. After those five weeks we were left with something shaped like emotional and physical luggage, and with it we had work. And it works, and we are proud of it.