Settlement: A Prologue

17 October 2014, all day, Spit and Sawdust Skate Park

A very busy day awaited

After a series of less than fortuitous events, in which the National Rail Service, my Friendly Neighbourhood Bin-men, and the last vestiges of a particularly gnarly head-cold teamed up to conspire against me, I arrived in Cardiff this morning amid brilliant blue skies – heralding better things to come, I reckoned.

Settlement, the day long, artist-led workshop-cum-conference, cum-all-you-can-eat-buffet, was being held at the Spit and Sawdust skate park. An establishment I was not familiar with, but very impressed by. Idiosyncratic in the very best sense of the word, Spit and Sawdust has plastic dinosaurs guarding its dining tables, its burger menu scrawled on a free-standing door propped next to the counter, and a beautiful tree sculpture suspended in the middle of the skate park, for no other reason I can tell than that it looks fucking awesome.

The hanging tree

The only downside, perhaps, is that Spit and Sawdust is buried behind a megalithic mile of Pets at Home and Carpet Right storefronts. The further I ventured into this commercial hinterland (burdened, might I add, by a backpack, sleeping bag, and laptop) the less certain I felt I was heading in the right direction. I was already having visions of collapsing, exhausted, in the car park of TGI Fridays and spending the rest of the day stress-napping behind a Honda Civic. 

I spy a pair of Docs

That was until I spotted two successive women in Doc Martens and tye-dye, riding bicycles. I happily followed their trail behind the MacDonald’s, and soon enough, found myself where I needed to be. (I say none of that with disparagement. The only pair of shoes you will ever see me in are a pair of very battered, but much beloved patent green Docs. I plan to be buried in them.)

Outside, in the car park of Spit and Sawdust, four guys were already hard at work at … some kind of wooden construction? During the morning I spent at Settlement it gradually grew more vertical in nature – Sara, who’s spent the afternoon joining in the artistic frenzy, will fill you in later on what that ended up turning into! (Wee spoiler: it involves masks.)

The mysterious construction

I was greeted at the door by a very amicable Labrador (who later entertained us all by gleefully paddling round the pond in the local Howardian nature reserve - and more on that later), and Freya, whose last name I didn’t catch (sorry Freya!).

Once through the doors, Settlement was exactly what my feet-achey, uncomfortably sweaty (I walked a long way, okay), under-caffeinated self was after. As quickly as my walk there had seemed to last a lifetime, I was set up on a couch (in what Freya dubbed the ‘cwtch-y corner’), with a cup of fresh Kim Fielding coffee, listening to the gentle hip-hop stylings of the DJ set. Yep, they had a DJ accompanying breakfast.

I could already tell the day was going to be good.

Pain-au-chocolat and hip-hop: a match Made-in-Roath heaven

After breakfast, the various artists who were leading Settlement – and the very excellent Helen Clifford, one of the esteemed organisers of Made in Roath - introduced themselves, and the basic structure of the day. 

The artists introduce themselves

We were also given a little background information on the film that had been playing, projected onto the back wall of the café, throughout breakfast. This short film (by Tom Edgar), which animated various recordings of people talking about the way energy usage effects their lives, was also looping on a laptop with a handy pair of headphones attached, for those who wanted a closer viewing.  

Film by Tom Edgar

Because the turn-out had been so fantastic for Settlement we were asked to split into three groups and choose between four mysterious activities; one involving wood, one involving painting, one involving sausages, and a walk around the local nature reserve, in the company of Ben Connors, an artist who specialises in socially-engaged, artistic projects in the community. 

Apparently I had quickly forgotten my exhaustion of 20 minutes previous, and I opted for the walk … and for more on that, you shall have to wait my lovelies! It was such an invigorating experience (physically and mentally) that it deserves its own post – hopefully with some custom photography from Nigel Pugh, who was even busier than us, racing ahead of the walking group in order to take artistic long-shots of us as we ambled along, and a few words from Ben Connors.

In the meantime you can also look forward to another Settlement post from Sara, who spent the morning making masks and sausages. But not masks made out of sausages. That would be upsetting. And wrong.

-Rebecca

P.s. I also spent a lot of time chatting this morning with Jessica Akerman, who will be running the Women’s Work Songs workshop tomorrow, with Frankie Armstrong, at the Milgi Yurt from 3:30 to 5pm. She told me all about the rehearsal, which sounded fantastic, and that was only the rehearsal! Definitely make some space for it, in your busy itineraries – I know I am. 

The Facebook group for the event can be found here.