Colmcille’s Spiral looked at the influence of Colmcille/St Columba as part of Derry City of Culture. The works were exhibited firstly in Llandelio Cathedral and Litchfield Cathedral before shown in Derry. The work looked at the story of the Gospel of St Chad which contained the Surrexit memorandum in its margins which is considered the first example of handwriting in Welsh. The Gospel appeared in Llandelio in the 9th Century and was exchanged for a horse by the church. It was taken to Litchfield, the home of St Chad in the 11th Century.

For the exhibition, two ceramic horses were created and displayed in the Catherdrals. The Litchfield Horse in Llandelio and the Llandelio Horse in Litchfield. The handwriting was digitised and called ‘teilo’ (no capital letter) and available to use free through creative commons. A vinyl was placed at the Costa Coffee Shop on the M5 services asking if the Gospel of St. Chad had passed this way 1000 years before, looking at the journey but intentionally left a vague statement as the cafe is a place of transition and a place for private narratives. Writing workshops were held in Derry and Llandelio using reed pen and recreating the handwriting of the unknown cleric who wrote in the Gospel.

The display in Derry also feature example of a series of drawings where people were invited to drawing Llandelio Fawr Cathedral and Litchfield Cathedral if they had never seen it and looked at our knowledge and experience can inform our imagination.

DOWNLOAD teilo HERE

teilo has featured in numerous projects and recently I used the typeface in pieces relating to the life of the artist Jonah Jones.

The horses were part of a process of working where I tried a technique for the first time, deliberately avoiding skill and knowledge to arrive as something which represented the limitations of my ability.

teilo was used for the branding of the Oriel Davies Open in Newtown