Maylya (2025)
Video, 13:11 mins

Maylya (Mye-lee-a, vb. to bind, envelop, wrap) is a performance to camera where the artist heaves, pulls and draws the sculpture Wrapping Copper into being. The work binds together a collection of materials into a single mass, making the physical tension visible as the elements work together to hold their form.

The sculpture at the centre of the perforance is made using cloth from Cornwall Scrapstore. At its core are cardboard ‘rocks’, made in workshops by participants in the MESKLA | Brewyon Drudh project. The ‘rocks’ were painted in colours representing participant’s relationships with the land of Kernow. These colours were then given names in Kernewek (Cornish) expanding the lexicon of this ancient language.

Filmed at The Dry - part of the National Trust East Pool Mine within the UNESCO Cornwall and West Devon World Heritage Site. This video work continues to explore themes of ancestry, labour and land and our responsibility to each.

“As I wrap, I meet the same points again and again but each time the surface changes and time passes. Through this action I think about how understanding and perspective shifts and evolves with changing context.” - Sovay Berriman