Flat Holm Island

Lying in the Bristol Channel, just 3km off Lavernock Point (South Wales), is Flat Holm - Cardiff's own mystery island. Its shorelines are studded with secret caves, and its landscape hides stories of survival against all odds. It is a microcosm of Wales’ history. The buildings, remnants of military defenses and a former cholera isolation hospital, echo stories of loss, isolation and grief; a nation defending itself against invasion.

Now operating as a tourist attraction, bird sanctuary and Site of Special  Scientific Interest it defends itself against the threat of climate change. Living off-grid and enduring the turn of the seasons across one year, this immersive film captures the story of one woman whose experience of chronic pain ignites a love affair with the island. Isolated and yearning to be heard this is an intimate duet that gives voice to the invisible pain of body and earth. 

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This filmed site-responsive work deeply inhabits and enlivens the hidden stories of Flat Holm’s landscape, scattered with wildflowers growing through the crumbling remains of centuries of human occupation, re-awakening them in the imagination of the public.

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Told through the body and voice of a lone woman in chronic pain, across the cycle of a year’s turn, this is an intimate duet between broken body and damaged earth – the search for home/holm in Flat Holm’s brutal yet beautiful embrace.

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Duration - 30 minutes

Runs on the hour and every half hour (see venue for details)

https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2022/no-place-like-flat-holm