Llifolygon [after Jumana Emil Abboud]

A sequence of poems by Lowri Hedd Vaughan is the second instalment of beside/gerllaw. Artfully oscillating between Cymraeg/Welsh and English, between prose and lyric, and between first-person and collective address, the writer responds to the practice of Jumana Emil Abboud, who is showing a body of work in Mostyn, Llandudno, and Amgueddfa Cymru, Cardiff, as part of Artes Mundi 11. These artists share a deep-rooted fascination with water – as resource, as material, as political substance – and an investment in its capacity to both ground us in place and transport us to other temporal and geographical contexts. While the issues underpinning this fascination are planetary in scale, their emphasis is on close, conversational, body-to-body exchange defined by a specificity of site. At several points in ‘Llifolygon’ the poet whispers questions directly to the reader, compelling us to consider our own positions within the cyclical networks in which we swim. Wyt ti’n cofio bod yn rew? Do you remember being ice?

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