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A storyteller, who grew up on a Welsh farm surrounded by Jersey cows, will tonight share an agricultural tale in a performance combining acting, song, poetry - and milk.
Rowan O’Neill will be accompanied by local choir Concordia, a Jersey cow and a milk separator for her ‘Rendez-vous particulière - potatoes from Egypt’ at St. Ouen’s Parish Hall tonight at 19:00.
Rowan is the current international artist in residence with ArtHouse Jersey and The Morning Boat, a programme of public art projects, exploring and reflecting on agricultural and fishing practices in Jersey and the impact these have on people's lives.
At the centre of the programme is an international artist residency, which invites artists from around the world to collaborate with local farmers, fishermen, politicians, chefs, retailers and consumers, to open up public conversations on issues that are central to the island’s economy, social fabric and way of life.
Rowan’s research and creative practice represents a continuing investigation of language, identity, place and belonging, inspired by her rural agricultural up-bringing in a predominantly Welsh speaking community.
Her work is often inspired by autobiographical narratives and experiences that form the starting point for public events and community performances.
“I was brought up on a dairy farm in West Wales,” Rowan said. “Unusually for the area in which we lived, the cattle we farmed were Jerseys.”
In 1989, the family had to sell the farm due to the external pressures of milk quotas. Rowan, who was 12 at the time, said she had to swap “her ambitions to join the young farmers club” to join a youth theatre.
Pictured: The performance will take place this evening at St. Ouen's Parish Hall at 19:00.
Rowan explained: “I never got to follow in my father’s footsteps and become a Jersey farmer and though I have continued to forge a career in art and performance, these days I notice that I am drawn to the dwelling places that exist at the end of lanes that remind me of the environment in which I was raised, where bread was baked, contractors fed and milk separated.”
Last November, Rowan travelled to Jersey carrying “a photograph that betrayed my heritage to be that of a Jersey dairy farmer.”
During her time in the island, she explored some of the demographic, cultural and economic changes that rural Jersey has experienced over the past 100 years, which saw the number of active farms fall from over 1,000 to under 100.
Pictured: Peter Houguez from Westlands Farm in St Ouen, the last dairy herd in the Parish - one of the many islanders Rowan spoke to.
She visited empty or converted farmhouses and met farmers and former farmers, politicians, historians, residents and folk musicians.
The result, she says, is “an event that weaves together the past and the present, Jerriais, Welsh and English.” It also touches on how Rowan’s own experiences, growing up and living in rural Wales, resonate with the island of Jersey.
Rowan described ‘Rendez-vous particulière’ as “part-Young Farmer’s concert, part-Island Eisteddfod. Not quite a curate’s egg, but certainly a Jersey wonder."
Kaspar Wimberley, the curator of the Morning Boat, said: "People can simply come along without a ticket. It would interest anybody interested in island culture and history."
Pictured top: Rowan, who grew up on a Welsh farm surrounded by Jersey cows.
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