Hryre
A new light work for the Eastern Ruins of St John the Baptist Church, Chester
‘Hryre’ (the word for ‘ruin’ in Old English) is a new artwork designed to explore the resonance of the site in respect to the medieval culture of Chester, and of St John’s Church in particular. I have drawn from the research of the ‘Mapping Medieval Chester’ project, and the artwork is part of a new ‘Discover Medieval Chester’ project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Whilst medieval Welsh poems are often satirical about Chester, St John’s Church is venerated as a site of pilgrimage, as it was believed to hold relics of the ‘true cross’ which, according to Welsh tradition, were washed into Chester on the tide. This image of the tide, from a poem by Maredudd ap Rhys, suggests both inexorable change and continuity.
