‘The Lost Tale of Gawain’ project was both a gentle hoax and also a homage to the exquisite beauty of medieval manuscripts and the engaging simplicity of medieval romance.
The project was a collaboration between myself and artist & illustrator Jonathan Chadwick.
Created specially for Macclesfield’s Barnaby Festival 2013 Art Trail, the exhibition included six double-spread facsimiles from a ‘recently discovered’ medieval manuscript and the supposedly medieval book itself in a glass case.
Jonathan’s gold-illuminated illustrations showed scenes from a story, written by me, of Gawain’s adventures in Macclesfield. The story is a sequel to the (genuine) medieval story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is judged from its dialect to have been written in this area.
The exhibition was on show from Friday 14 – Sunday 30 June 2013 in St Michael and All Angels Church, Macclesfield.
I performed the story, with live cello music by Angela Aiken and Lili Holland-Fricke, on Sunday 23 June 2013 in St Michael’s. Around 150 people came to listen to this tale of adventure and magic.
“The Lost Tale of Gawain was beautiful and romantic and original and, and, and so much more!”
“a magical end to our Barnaby weekend”
A repeat performance was staged on Saturday 2 November in St Michael’s medieval Savage Chapel, in association with Entropy Events. There was a full house and the setting made it the most magical performance yet.
A book containing the story and images was the first publication from my Moormaid Press, of which more later.
