The Tweed Man
May - June
various locations throughout Bedford

Day is night and night is day
So please hold the light as I slip away
Up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire

A series of unannounced appearances during May and June, as The Tweed Man.

The Green Man, a name coined by Lady Raglan in 1939, is a mediaeval image usually found in churches. Carved in stone or wood, depicted on stained glass, illuminated manuscripts and elsewhere. He can be recognised as a face, often grotesque, with foliage sprouting from his mouth, nose, eyes or ears.
The earliest known examples are in the art of Classical Rome, from where the idea seems to have moved northwards, to be adopted by Christianity and spread far and wide along the pilgrimage routes. However, the mighty questions of whom, what, where and why - the search for a meaning behind the symbol - remain as yet unanswered.
The lack of substantial evidence leaves the significance open to individual interpretation. Kent has its Green Man mythologies, and soon, Bedford will perhaps focus the eyes of historical commentators on his little known brother - The Tweed Man!
Dressed from head to toe in tweed, the artist will make a series of physically demanding journeys through Bedfordshire and explore en route certain ideas behind ancient fertility rites, pagan rituals and Bedfordshire's diverse local history.The Tweed Man performances are concerned with notions of time unfolding, cultural inheritance and mythology.