MESKLA Legacy
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MESKLA 2022 Pamphlet
2022
A limited edition of small palm-sized pocket sculptures (above) were cast from reclaimed copper and given, on a first come first served basis, to those who contributed to the sculptural workshops, creating a physical legacy, and reminder of the shared conversations.
Independent queer arts & heritage consultancy ButCH/* formatively evaluated the first stage of the project in 2022.
In late 2022 a pamphlet was produced with texts by Emma Underhill and BuTCH/*, and a drawing by Sovay that responded to the connections and communications that are so essential to the MESKLA methodology. This pamphlet can be viewed here.
2023
Meskla was included in The Redruth Story Book published by The Writers’ Block. You can read the text by Sovay here.
Sovay’s Gwyrdh Glas work for Flamm Cornwall hosted rubbish workshops to make rock sculptures informed by the carns of Kernow, which were painted in colours that connected to participants’ identities. We looked for suitable Kernewek/Cornish language words for those colours. If a fitting word did not exist, we created one through conversation, use of Kernewek/Cornish dictionaries and support from Kernewek speakers.
The colours and their words will be collected in a sample book - Liwyow a Gernow (Colours of Cornwall) which will be added to the MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh archive, and offered to the Cornish Language Office for the ever evolving langauge of Kernow/Cornwall.
Sovay self-published her short story Catching Copper within the MESKLA project, see images below. Catching Copper speaks to some of where the MESKLA project has come from for Sovay. It is a story about loss, change, and power. It considers how people, place and experience form who we are; it wonders about relationships to land, labour, and what we leave behind; and it pays attention to the impact of small moments. You can listen to an audio version listen via youtube, scan the QR code or click the embedded player below. The audio is 22mins30secs in duration, it’s recommended to listen via headphones. To buy a riso print copy of the story with an illustration by Sovay please visit the shop.
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2024
'Can a Cornish deep map of place and vista that includes moorlands, farmlands, granite towns, coastal villages also include nightclubs, clootie trees, roads, bus stops, toxic remnants, seashell kitsch, the granite carpark bollards that Berriman and Sibungu laugh over? Can the messiness of being in this place present a more progressive set of possibilities? It is this Cornish speculative futurism that Sovay Berriman’s work with reclaimed plumber’s copper and collective “rubbish” sculptures occupies. New-not-new, not from nothing. Reused. Extraction never really moves on: it leaves its fissures and fractures and waste. How might we bind together precious fragments to craft culture and identity, meaning and belonging, traction, from the leftovers?'
Penrose, Piccini, 2023
Click on the images below to read the text.
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2025 and Beyond
The MESKLA Archive exhibition tok place at Kresen Kernow in February & March 2025 as a precurser to the project joining Cornwall’s archive centre.
To continue the discussions of MESKLA I intend to produce a small publication of the Liwyow a Gernow colour swatches and CMYK/RGB numbers, plus prompts, provocations and guidance for holding your own rubbish sculpture conversations about Kernewek identity.
A limited edition of small palm-sized pocket sculptures (above) were cast from reclaimed copper and given, on a first come first served basis, to those who contributed to the sculptural workshops, creating a physical legacy, and reminder of the shared conversations.
Independent queer arts & heritage consultancy ButCH/* formatively evaluated the first stage of the project in 2022.
In late 2022 a pamphlet was produced with texts by Emma Underhill and BuTCH/*, and a drawing by Sovay that responded to the connections and communications that are so essential to the MESKLA methodology. This pamphlet can be viewed here.
2023
Meskla was included in The Redruth Story Book published by The Writers’ Block. You can read the text by Sovay here.
Sovay’s Gwyrdh Glas work for Flamm Cornwall hosted rubbish workshops to make rock sculptures informed by the carns of Kernow, which were painted in colours that connected to participants’ identities. We looked for suitable Kernewek/Cornish language words for those colours. If a fitting word did not exist, we created one through conversation, use of Kernewek/Cornish dictionaries and support from Kernewek speakers.
The colours and their words will be collected in a sample book - Liwyow a Gernow (Colours of Cornwall) which will be added to the MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh archive, and offered to the Cornish Language Office for the ever evolving langauge of Kernow/Cornwall.
Sovay self-published her short story Catching Copper within the MESKLA project, see images below. Catching Copper speaks to some of where the MESKLA project has come from for Sovay. It is a story about loss, change, and power. It considers how people, place and experience form who we are; it wonders about relationships to land, labour, and what we leave behind; and it pays attention to the impact of small moments. You can listen to an audio version listen via youtube, scan the QR code or click the embedded player below. The audio is 22mins30secs in duration, it’s recommended to listen via headphones. To buy a riso print copy of the story with an illustration by Sovay please visit the shop.
2024
Sefryn Penrose and Angela Piccini of ButCH/*'s text Gathering Precious Fragments: Reassembling Heritage through MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh responds to the first year of MESKLA. Placing the project within a broader historical and contemporary context. The text was submitted to the Cornish Language Service at Cornwall Council for translation and as hoped has led to new language.
'Can a Cornish deep map of place and vista that includes moorlands, farmlands, granite towns, coastal villages also include nightclubs, clootie trees, roads, bus stops, toxic remnants, seashell kitsch, the granite carpark bollards that Berriman and Sibungu laugh over? Can the messiness of being in this place present a more progressive set of possibilities? It is this Cornish speculative futurism that Sovay Berriman’s work with reclaimed plumber’s copper and collective “rubbish” sculptures occupies. New-not-new, not from nothing. Reused. Extraction never really moves on: it leaves its fissures and fractures and waste. How might we bind together precious fragments to craft culture and identity, meaning and belonging, traction, from the leftovers?'
Penrose, Piccini, 2023
Click on the images below to read the text.
2025 and Beyond
The MESKLA Archive exhibition tok place at Kresen Kernow in February & March 2025 as a precurser to the project joining Cornwall’s archive centre.
To continue the discussions of MESKLA I intend to produce a small publication of the Liwyow a Gernow colour swatches and CMYK/RGB numbers, plus prompts, provocations and guidance for holding your own rubbish sculpture conversations about Kernewek identity.