Cheryl Beer

Cockles & Meadows is a digital artwork by environmental sound artist Cheryl Beer, created through a commission with the Wales Broadcast Archive and Disability Arts Cymru. The commission invited artists to explore the broadcast archive for inspiration and create new digital works in response.

Cheryl’s piece is a comparative exploration of past and future — weaving together the memories of cockle pickers at Llanelli beach with the forward-looking vision of Project Seagrass, whose experimental meadows restore carbon storage and shellfish habitat.

She began by researching the Wales Broadcast Archive, before visiting Llanelli beach to record the sound of the tides, shaping a soundscape that empowers the sea itself to carry the narrative. She then notated a musical refrain from the planting patterns of the seagrass meadow, sourced from the Project Seagrass archive. Played on piano, the refrain allows the seagrass to “speak” alongside the project team.

The film combines Cheryl’s coastal recordings with dramatic aerial footage by Jarro Media, creating a striking backdrop for the human voices at the centre of the work.

To ground the piece in lived experience, Cheryl met with older residents of Cilymaenllwyd Care Home to capture their memories of cockle picking as children, as well as speaking with family members and the wider community. For a vision of the future, she joined Project Seagrass volunteers in the field, documenting their monitoring and planting work.

Edited together, these voices, sounds, and visuals form Cockles & Meadows — a layered reflection on eco-sustainability, honouring the past while imagining the future of our coastline.