As one of the “Collection of the Artists” (CotA) team, my role was to write about aspects of the collection, especially looking at the connection between artefacts and places and that sense of “belonging” and “home”. Arnemetia, the Roman Goddess of the Waters at Buxton was here long before the Romans arrived and stayed long after they left.
CotA was an Arts Council funded project during the bigger “Collections in the Landscape” project to bring together a team of artists who were asked to respond to different aspects of the Collection in their different styles of work
AS LONG AS WATERS RUN
Long skirts rustling on cobbles
A hat tipping, a cane tapping,
The bath-chair creaking,
A wheel squeaks.
Cross my palm with silver, lady,
Cross my palm with copper,
Cross my heart with happiness
And I’ll share this water with you.
The world sighed into warmth,
Old memories waking grass and flowers,
Remembering trees.
The hills relaxed long shoulders as the weight lifted.
And She woke as the ice melted,
As the water
Seeped, dripped, dribbled,
Nibbled itself a hollow,
A bedchamber for a fairytale,
In the darkness under the hills.
