Stiwdio Maelor Residency - Learning to Wobble — Chris A. Wright

Stiwdio Maelor residency 1st to 18th October 2026

Learning to wobble

Day 1.

A travel day arriving just before 4pm. With a mix-up with emails confusing dates, it could have been a better start but I was very relaxed and unbothered. Years ago, I was to build an installation in Cuneo, Italy. A mix-up in emails and language meant I arrived at the train station around midday, a little stressed and alone. I stood in the noon heat and cried. Thoughts - ‘I haven’t got a proper contract, where do I go, what am I going to do, I don’t have much money’. Feeling incredibly stupid, vulnerable, tired from travelling and negotiating travel in italian, I gave myself a talking to (in English), bought a map, made a phone call and bought an espresso in the nearest bar. On my second cup, which wasn’t the best of ideas in my state, someone arrived to collect me guessing where I would be. All turned out well but these thoughts came back to me as I stood on this doorstep in Wales. What have I learned, double, triple check everything. Did I do it? – no!

My room and studio in the attic were just what I wanted and needed. I loved the space, the strangely angled view from the bed out to the stairs and the sense of peace.

I felt I had to make something immediately and with the odd mix of materials I had brought which included Modroc, I made a mask based on my face. In 2023, whilst sitting on a mustard-yellow bedspread in Lugano, Switzerland where I was attending a sound conference, I wrote that I should make no more new things and instead follow my ideas of sustainability about materials. This was to be what I had found, skip-dived for, acquired by various means. The place was important, I think mainly because of the prosperity I saw in Switzerland but also, travelling brings an opportunity to reflect during all the waiting that happens. The mask was left to dry and went to bed very early.

Day 2.

What a difference a day makes! Up and running, literally. Home for breakfast, home being the place where I am not the place where my belongings are. This opens up a lot of thoughts about home that maybe one day, I will have a greater understanding. I am going to skip about a bit, but on day 3a (more on that later) I marked a small piece of driftwood with the word ‘home’ on it reminiscent to all the quaint and offbeat houses I have seen over the years with such a sign, painted in red, of course. Worked on the mask, placing it in the window with the most sunshine to dry. Writing, drawing, thinking until afternoon and then out for a walk in the sunshine. Dog walkers know all the walks and soon got a chance to speak to Millie’s owner and got directions. This has proved to be my favourite photo and encapsulates everything I was to learn about the local environment, including
perennial wet feet and clothes!

Later in the residency, after lots of rain, the stream had grown and it had changed to leaping across the stepping stones and still getting wet feet.

Day 3

Up and running again. Today, I recorded my run from door to door. Starts with the sound of the shutting of the door. It is really important to have lots of pauses. It is not really about the running but about taking in sensual information about my location and the environment but also letting those thoughts/feelings wander around in my head. Collected little slate pieces echoing the ones that surround the fields and graveyard – just in case they get out! I tried to make a circle of them with string as the connecting cable but realise that in the field they are anchored into the earth. I could perhaps try it with clay. Took a trip to Machynlleth, had coffee, went in book shops. Stopped at Tan-y-Coed forest park on way back and did a lot of recording. Moss, fungi, rotting tree stumps, mud etc. it was surprising how loud the fungi and termites in tree stump were.

Day 4

Same routine then working on stones and downloading recordings. Tried to make a print of the stones with coffee by placing the stones in a ring with the string still attached thinking it would create a clear outline. Wrong, of course! The circle was deliberately not complete. To my way of thinking, this is important because it gives a sense of movement, of discontinuity, of not know which end is the start or finish. I think, in some ways, it defines my practice as an ongoing interweaving of thoughts and concepts rather than a linear path. It is linear, of course, but I am happy to take all the little offshoots and pathlets along the way which may or may not loop back to the main path. I am happy with either scenario. Walking is part of my art practice, both as a practice in itself and as a tool. These analogies relate to walks I have done in the past such as following a path through thick forest only delineated by bent grass, meandering aimlessly in a field, using a compass in dense fog to negotiate a moor but ending up in nearly the right place. It is always curiosity that sends me in another direction.

Running is slightly different. I run in whatever direction my feet are inclined to go rather than setting out in a deliberate, pre-planned direction. The intense physical movement gives me clear thinking whereas walking allows me to ponder more deeply into ideas.

Day 5

After run, another try at the print.

I realised a long time ago that print-making in any form other than in the darkroom which I loved, was not my forte. I think it is the waiting for drying. But I will keep trying. Putting my thoughts into a booklet about improvisation that explores the way the mind wanders and pages are followed by arrows and not consecutively placed.

Print in progress just using the string not the stones. Slate is a remarkable surface that doesn’t hold the stain and is untouched by the coffee. I will take them back to my studio and use clay to keep them upright (Later, I found my clay was an unloved ‘stone’).

I began drawing lines, edges where hills meet the sky on my usual thin strip of Fabriano paper, 3m by 10cms.

Day 6

No run but walked up Cader Idris (863m or 248 lengths of my drawing paper) with Mary. Very foggy and no views. Lots and lots of steps and my knees hurt on the way down which they never have done before. The notice board cited the magnificent views but today, it was very low cloud which added its own atmosphere but occasionally became an exercise in walking rather than a pleasure as you could only see just in front of you for mso0t of the time. The stream rushing down the mountain was a constant accompaniment until above the cwm.

Looking towards cwm in rare view between clouds

It took 6 hours but, looking back, rather than at the time, it was a great walk and so glad to have done it. There were some beautiful moments such as when each seed head of grass held a droplet of water giving a sparkling effect. Also, some bright lichens, red and neon yellow that I have yet to identify.

Near the top, just rocks and scree. Got a little lost but regained path (several times, thanks to Mary and her local knowledge).

Day 1a

Resumed running and then went to get Mik. Unfortunately an urgent family matter arose and it took a couple of days before I got back. Changed my head space but sure I will get back to it. It is different having someone here and have had to tidy up the studio as I had used all of it. So this is day 1a rather than day 7.

Prints completed before I left are now dry. Not sure what I think but quite like them. It is hard to see that the circle does not quite meet. Whilst the original stones and the string were a broken circle, the coffee stain filled in the gaps. Went to pub with Mary and Veronica, walked there and back. A long day as we followed the sat nav’s quickest route. It is a liar!

Day 2a

Worked on more mask layers and think the base is now finished. Lured to Ynyslas Beach instead of working on art. Collected lots of treasures – shells, stones etc. They will end up on my ‘treasures’ shelf in the studio for future inspiration.

Made the first layer of the mask using ink.

Day 3a

Worked on a panoramic view around Corris starting at Maelor. Added info attached by strings but do not really like the work, well, like the drawing but not how the info is attached. The idea is that you pick up each ‘card’ and place it against the drawing. Thinking back to Acoustical Imagery in Catania which was a better way of doing it. The viewer overlaid their thoughts in drawing and text directly on tracing paper over the top. In the past, I have tried having a timeline but that seemed a little cumbersome too.

The days are a mix of the running, walking, drawing, making and taking time to think. I love this place, the way the hills and clouds wrap around you enveloping you in a sense of peace and also a feeling of being within rather than without. I am a fairly solitary person but here, it is as if you don’t need anyone, the environment provides it all.

Day 4a

Began drawing the outlines in concertina book.

They are overlapping and from around Corris but covering a wider distance. I will add the shoreline form Ynylas during the geology walk tomorrow and maybe the river. There are gaps where the low cloud obscured the mountain top. Somehow, I am spending more time deep within the residency rather than making time to write about it. The days are full and now adding recording and collaborating with Mik. The discrepancy between seeing and hearing is a difficult one to get across on the page just as it is in a gallery. I will eventually make a list! Began a mind map, Constellations of Practice, linking various ways of working -themes and concerns.

Went into Machynlleth to buy bamboo and indulge in my new found love of vegan Welsh cakes.

Made harps out of bamboo and string.

Day 5a

Working on mask, harps, drawing. Down to Ynyslas beach for geology talk. There is so much I don’t know about sand dunes.

New treasures include the lower jaw of a rabbit and beautiful stones.

Mask now several layers in, the ink dries quickly.

Day 6a

Mask in final stages however, I know that it will have some adjustments later. I attached fastenings and began the intensive process of learning to move within it. It embodies the environment and holds the essence of place. The movement will not just echo this but gain a life of its own reflecting my place within it.

Need to gather the poetics of here to carry with me when I leave.

I have not added all the conversations with Veronica Calarco and with her partner, Mary with whom I went up Cader Idris with, whose place this is - the walks we have had and not just to the pub!

I have called this text Happenstance and Learning to wobble. After nearly two weeks, I think I have begun the learning process. It begins with a full body wobble, a looseness of limbs and joints that can be effected in any space. It will be the rushing of the river, the wind down the valley, the cloud around your shoulders, the smell of the damp woodland, the clamber through steep forest and the cold of the river on warm skin. It will be in the Corris mask. The next stage of learning is transferring this wobble to the mind to create a similar looseness of thought and extrapolate my ideas without regard to convention and internal constriction.

Day 7a

Last productive day with new online walking group meeting 10.30. We have been collected into a group by Fred Adams and Geert of walklistencreate (walc) with the intention of creating a geolocative map that encompasses all our walking practices from our locations of Australia, Portugal, Greece, Scotland, England. Don’t know how this is going to work but feel that I am in an ideal place and will use Corris as my place as I have images, videos and sound tracks to accompany my text. However, can only listen as internet is awry. Go out for recording as soon as it finished - plants in the liminal area by
the river., ‘harps’ by river and humming in the river.

Humming with the river was the action that I wanted to do all the time here. It was important to build up a sense of ‘here’ before doing so. My first thoughts were that I was just putting it off but I have gained a deeper understanding of my practice and realise that there is a moment of doing things, when it is right. This last full day was right. I have not been sure whether I have been humming in harmony which were my first thoughts, alongside of with or, even, against. For now, I will use ‘with’.

Not having a place here for all the recordings, I have made a list so I can remember later - Slow run with pauses, mud in forest, rotting tree stump (termites?), group of fungi on different stump, ivy on wall, fern, in long grass, river in fairly still pool, rotting birch tree by river, in rushing part of river, humming across river with Mik at bottom of Cader Idris at different distances, Mik’s 3 songs, puddle by river, humming in river at chin level.

Later, walk to bottom of Cader Idris and humming with Mik across the river.

Tiny piece of lichen. I had ordered a digital microscope but unfortunately, it hadn’t arrived so I have taken a very tiny piece, magnified here, to examine later.

Day 8a Leaving day but first, Walc meeting 8 to 11. Or not! No electric and computer low in battery. No internet. Abandon attempt and leave early.

Thoughts

This writing may all be too long, too prosaic.

Overall, a fantastic residency. Loved being able to open the door and walk, run straight away. Enjoyed the proximity of the studio to the bed! Being able to play with no agenda, being able to use my time as I wanted. Doing things like making the prints was so far from what I do and know that it is good - to fail to learn. It is so difficult to add sound recordings. Even here, I have not added sound or video due to space.

It is now the beginning of November, and I have gained a deeper understanding of my practice that was helped by the residency. Two things have happened. Firstly, I was asked to do a video interview about my work conducted by Elham Puriya Mehr in which she asked very pertinent questions. She was incredibly taken with the mask which was hanging in my studio as well as a previous one that I had made of Stanton Moor in Derbyshire. And secondly, I went to a conference she had organised with Fereshte Moosavi at which Irit Rogoff was speaking. Her ideas about research and practice were almost exactly as I thought about it in relation to myself and that I have had such trouble getting across to people over the years. I have felt so at odds that I have lost some confidence and hope that I now can, with the help of Maelor residency, Elham and Irit grow. In other words, I have learnt to wobble that can now extend from body to brain through. Series of unexpected events – happenstance.