Lunaria, cross-stitch embroidery, 2025, inspired by medieval wall painting of Time (or Death) in Patricio church of St Issui, Powys.
Lunaria was completed slowly over three or four years.
This piece originated through visitations to the medieval wall painting of Time (or Death), in St Issui’s Church, Patricio, Welsh Black Mountains. A site that I have visited for many years. Also home to a multi-faith well shrine, which has been an active place of worship since the 6th century, and formed part of my MA research on the contemporary Buddhist practice in the region. Extract below:
“It is recorded that ‘an early Christian hermit named Issui founded a cell here on a sloping hillside beside a stream. The stream fed a well from which the hermit drew water.’ St. Issui baptised passers-by in the stream, which is called Nant Mair, or Mary’s Stream. Eventually, ‘Issui was robbed and murdered by a traveller, and was probably buried within his cell. Pilgrims came to visit the saint’s grave, and the well, which was reputed to have healing properties’.
Outside of the official story, very little is known about St. Issui. There is speculation that his ‘adoption of this well as his home may reflect that it was already associated with pagan traditions of magic and healing.’ Some have theorised that he could have been ‘a Welsh pagan deity who was Christianised and became a saint for convenience sake after the conversion of Wales to Christianity.’ I therefore approach the space with an awareness of its hidden histories, and physically, it lends itself to hidden meaning.
The well is comprised of five ancient stone walls, which are engraved with religious markings, and wild with moss and bracken. A series of shadowy niches house half-seen objects and insects. The largest niche, inside the central chamber, has been made into a medium-sized shrine, and contains flowers, shells, and a long-extinguished candle. Various smaller niches, in the stone walls to the left and right of the central chamber, contain strange, half-visible objects; pebbles, crystals, broken pieces of incense, a miniature jug, a tiara. In the liminal evening light, all of this is nearly unseen, and fades into half-shadow.”
