The Hag's Mantle

The Hag's Mantle draws on the Ingoldsby Legends tale of Robert de Shurland, Sheppey’s enduring story of hubris, prophecy, and return. Rather than casting the prophetic “hag” as a doom-speaker, this work reclaims her as the marshland’s knowing guardian.

The ceremonial robe carries embroidered motifs of Grey Dolphin’s skull and graffiti traced from De Shurland’s tomb. These elements bind medieval folklore to contemporary ecological concern. The mask fuses marsh harrier form with plague doctor silhouette, linking historic medical ritual to modern environmental protection.

Set within Kent’s salt marshes, true edge-lands that resist neat definition, the performance positions the Guardian as both protector and prophet. The work proposes that these wetlands are not wastelands but repositories of memory, feminine power, and ecological intelligence.

Here, past and present collapse into one another. Medieval sensibilities surface within contemporary environmental anxiety. The marsh does not merely host the figure. It speaks through her.