During her residency Martha Orbach developed a series of collective homemaking rituals and short films in response to the elusive Barbastelle Bats living in Pengelli forest.

The project explores homemaking, precarity and interspecies connection and was created in collaboration with artists Rowan O’Neill and Jacob Whittaker, and Kinora Wellbeing Centre in Cardigan, which is a mental health recovery drop-in centre.

The Barbastelle is a rare and elusive bat, in the family Vespertilio, sensitive to light and sound and Pengelli is one of the few places in Wales where it is still at home. The Barbastelle favour the messy habitat of ancient woodland where dead and decaying matter is not cleared. Pengelli Forest is part of the largest block of ancient Oak woodland in west Wales.

Through workshops, over cups of tea, and through spending time together in the forest, the project researched the habitat of the forest and what it might mean to be at home there. The forest habitat was experienced as precious and also beneficial for the humans and the vulnerability of the species habitat created networks of care within local people who had not previously known of the species. 

Site specific works were co-created including two short films and a series of stop motion animations.

Martha Orbach is a Glasgow-based artist who makes work about home, migration, and our relationship with our environment. She was raised rural and educated otherwise amidst activists and environmentalists. Her current work explores precarity, repair and life in the aftermath. 

She grew up in West Wales, studied at Coleg Ceredigion, the University of East Anglia, Camberwell College of Art, London College of Communication, and Capel Manor College.

 This work was commissioned in partnership with the Vincent Wildlife Trust as part of the Natur Am Byth! project by Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru.