Isabella Campbell
TEIFI
‘TEIFI’ is a long-term body of work that concerns the phenomena of the river Teifi that Isabella lives beside in rural West Wales. The series reflects the river’s filmic qualities and her relationship with it; photographing, revisiting and walking through its surroundings day to day since June 2016. The work conceptually revolves around the idea of the "sensory plate of perception" through the lens. This opens up a philosophical enquiry into perception, duration and transparency, which collectively form the Teifi phenomena. Despite its industrial past, the local gorge is considered to be one of the most ‘sublime’ spots to experience the Teifi. Ever since the old slate quarries retired in production, the woods have taken back the area, leaving the oldest parts of the ancient woodland to flourish as the river winds its way almost silently between the densely wooded sides with their distinctive under-story flora of wood rush. Due to the river's presence the wooded gorge creates natural high levels of humidity, and maintains this level during its summer months by cause of the tree canopy, which limits evaporation by the sun. As a result, the woodlands are a haven for mosses, ferns and lichens. As an observation made by Gerald Cambrensis in 1188 suggests, this particular part of the Teifi is unique and holds a rather spiritual aura as it was once inhabited by beavers, which are now very scarce in Great Britain and slowly being reintroduced: “The Teivi has another singular particularity, being the only river in Wales, or even in England, which has beavers; in Scotland they are said to be found in one river, but are very scarce. […] The beavers, in order to construct their castles in the middle of rivers, make use of the animals of their own species instead of carts, who, by a wonderful mode of carnage, convey the timber from the woods to the rivers.” In the light of the environmental issues we face today, the work is to showcase a celebratory vision of what we stand to lose. It has been made sensitively in response to the environment and has become a series of painterly meditations, expressing the Teifi’s timeless environmental energies in order to convey the same experience that Isabella had when making it.
