Cardiff Octoberfest

Cardiff's annual "Made in Roath" event, dominating the east side of the city, drew to a close this evening but it is only one of a plethora of major art events happening around the city this month. Coincidence or out-and-out competition, I'm not quite sure. "Cardiff Contemporary", is popping up all over the city till 9 November and has certainly stolen the limelight from MiR. Bigger still is the prestigious "Artes Mundi", attracting an international audience to the National Museum from 24 October onwards. Meanwhile "Empty Walls" gathers over 20 national and international street artists to decorate Cardiff's grey buildings with vibrant murals. On the weekend of 25/26 October Cardiff Open Studios throws the doors open on the remainder of the city's artists. In Cardiff Bay, the Butetown History and Art Centre launches Wales' first exhibition of 'Outsider Art', running until 16th November.

I had to spend several days scurrying back and forth across town because several pieces of my work were on display. My "United Colours of Madiba" painting got its first airing at Roath's SHO Gallery. My photograph of the Howard Gardens Art College campus was used prominently for the publicity and display at G39. In BHAC my "Portrait of a Diary as a Young Idea" fits well into the impressive array of paintings and sculpture on the 'Outsider Art' theme.

Fun though this may be, it is bewildering even for someone like myself who thought they were getting to grips with the artist personalities and groups in Cardiff. One would have thought, with 11 other months to choose from, there would be scope to spread these events out a bit! My heart tells me I should engage with the Made in Roath event, even though (said very quietly) I no longer live in ...erm ...Roath (and now the Roath Independence referendum has voted an overwhelming "YES" I may need a passport and visa to go to work). Made in Roath continues to be ultra popular, community based, democratic and encouraging mass participation and pride in the local area. In contrast "Cardiff Contemporary" goes down the more traditional route of professional artists presenting their work to the public in galleries, pop-ups and (occasionally) street corners. Exhibitions are selective and chosen from within the city's art scene. My head tells me I need to aim to engage with this event and, well, entering "Artes Mundi" is a distant pipe dream!!

Fortunately I can head for one of October's beer based "Octoberfest" events, hopefully numbing my brain to all this choice and confusion!!

http://madeinroath.com/
http://www.cardiffcontemporary.co.uk/
http://www.bhac.org/

Wilson up close and personal

Last week I had to run an errand across town and, on my way back, decided to drop into the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. I’m alarmed at how infrequently I visit this place, packed as it is with world class exhibits and a marvellous array of international art. And it's free to enter!

Prize exhibit at the moment is a £23 million painting of Salisbury Cathedral by John Constable, an awe inspiring work, vast in size and as crisply coloured as the day it was first painted. Photographs don’t do it justice. Three teenage schoolgirls sat in front of it for the ten minutes I was there, not saying anything, not even moving but, like me, enjoying the artwork.

In the adjacent galleries an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Wales’ most illustrious painter, Richard Wilson, was taking place. I’m glad I caught it. Wilson (1714-1782) travelled widely, redefining landscape painting and changing the very definition of beauty. Instead of the stylised and symbolic works of his contemporaries, he painted what was in front of him, actual landscapes and genuine settings (with only the occasional compositional device thrown in). Country house owners rushed to have their actual estates painted in all their glory. Meanwhile his bleak unadorned portrayals of Welsh mountain peaks were shocking to traditional eyes because of their stark simplicity.

Fascinating to me were Wilson’s delightfully witty portrayal of people. It’s not something you would notice unless you could stand a few feet in front of these big canvases. Sparingly placed at the edges of his landscapes are people going about their everyday business, walking, fishing, washing clothes, swimming. His painting of the town of Pembroke has a small child climbing a tree while, at the bottom of the cliff, his father tries to beckon him down. In the background there are skinny dippers discarding their clothes and swimming in the river. Even more remarkably for the time, Wilson portrays a woman breastfeeding her baby overlooking the River Arno, Italy, while her husband lies beside her tending his fishing rod (that’s not a euphemism by the way). The woman stares out of the canvas, challenging you to contemplate the intimate moment you’ve stumbled upon.

Wilson inspired John Constable and this exhibition is heralded as a once-in-a-generation gathering together of his paintings (a once-in-300-years tercentennial celebration of his birth). A marvellous opportunity. Paintings (well, the best ones) always reveal new and interesting qualities when they’re viewed ‘live’ and close up.

Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting until 26 October 2014
www.museumwales.ac.uk/cardiff

Part of the Wallpaper

While renovating my tiny kitchen in my Victorian terraced house I came across a patch of 1960s wallpaper behind a panel. It was a boldly coloured floral pattern in acidic shades of blue. I liked it and kept it, framed behind a sheet of perspex. I’m surrounded by remnants of old hearths and chimney breasts that no longer serve a purpose. My living room proudly retains a lead-based paint encrusted sash window.

Therefore I can relate strongly in many ways to Shani Rhys James installation, Florilingua, which was opened to the public this weekend inside the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. I enjoy paintings which take on another dimension. Shani Rhys James is one of Wales’ best known painters, recognised for her giant canvases which often take her own image as the subject.  But Florilingua expands to take on three dimensions and a sensory explosion of colour, sound and smell. Ostensibly it purports to speak about the domesticity of the lives of Victorian women. A bold floral ‘wallpaper’ pattern, painted by the artist, covers the interior walls of a bunker-like room constructed in the WMC concourse. From the ceiling hangs a small and suitably sombre black chandelier (bejewelled with rich red crystals) which illuminates the room. Poetry in English and Welsh can be heard, while the female poet’s lips mouth the words from a tiny screen in the middle of the far wall.

Even the solid construction of Shani’s bunker speak about the strength of Victorian domestic architecture. Contrary to Britain’s 19th century vision of male dominance and female subservience, nay invisibility, Florilingua resonates with a strength and depth. The rich yellows and reds are not restrained in any way, while the heady smell of fresh oil paint could render a small child unconscious! Maybe this installation is a physical respresentation of Shani’s multi-facted and opinionated persona (which belies her diminutive stature). I heard more than one person exiting the room commenting that they felt they had just experienced what it was like to walk into the middle of one of Shani’s paintings.

There is something quite incongruous about this unassuming white plywood box on the edge of the vast WMC concourse, but it’s a great setting which emphasises the extremes going on here. If anyone is heading down to Cardiff Bay then go search it out!

Ex in the City

My self-reflective object making, "Painting of a Diary", came to an end on Saturday 7 June. On the same day Cardiff School of Art's final degree show opened at its Howard Gardens campus and, to my surprise, the stand-out student work for me was not in the painting category at all.

This is the last event to take place at the 48 year old art college campus, before it relocates to the leafy suburbs. I studied in this jumble of concrete and yellow London brick when it was considerably younger, though not much cleaner. It was a rude introduction to city life, close to shopping streets, take-aways, pubs and clubs (many now gone). There were great views from the elevated whitewashed studios over the city rooftops and away in either direction to the Welsh hillsides and the sea. What better place to be an art student! I can only hope the move away from city life doesn't transform the Welsh capital's art college into something far more inward looking and tranquil in spirit.

It's a wrap!

Three of my favorite student works this year had received a "Helen Gregory Memorial Trust" award, which is particularly appropriate for me because Helen was a student in my year at Howard Gardens. She was an intelligent enquiring person with a political mind and social concience, but was tragically shot dead whilst on holiday not long after graduating. This year in the show the students' statements of intent are displayed next to their work and very many were intelligent and worldly.

The ground floor studio held some gems. Esther Burns (Estie.B) created for herself an alternative persona who (with a straight face) poked fun at the art world, inviting visitors to participate in the quest for a place in the pantheons of modern art history. Nearby was site-specific sculptor Georgia Hall, whose work appealed to my architectural sensibilities. In this instance she'd wrapped the college fittings, ductwork and radiators with plaster - maybe she'll do the same to the exterior of the building as a (literally) fitting monument!

Reviving old memories

On the first floor were Beth Marriott's exquisite matchbox objects whose task was to recreate memories for an elderly relative who suffered from dementia. The motive was laudable and the results were compelling. Further up the building (via the Ilustration show inexplicably turfed with grass) were Elaine Begley's layered wax memory cubes, again fascinating objects (though the memories seemed to be her own).

Don't get me wrong now, there were also some engaging and expertly crafted two-dimensional artworks on display as well - Annie Suganami and Helen Bur immediately spring to mind. But they fell short for me when it came to realising a self-reflective engagement with context. But there was certainly something for everyone - Helen Bur's people-focused paintings were selling well and clearly what the punters wanted!

Altogether another impressive annual output from Cardiff Art College. I studied there because it had a reputation for its diverse output and it clearly upholds its reputation into the new century. I only hope it continues to attract forward looking students when it is no longer in the living heart of the city!

Portrait of a Diary as a Young Idea

Wow, four blog posts in one month! It's been a busy "arty" four weeks, including a pleasant overseas holiday followed by several days of creative events in Cardiff, culminating in a visit to the Chapter Art Car Bootique on Sunday 25th May.

Back to earth with a bump, I've tasked myself to keep an Artist's Diary. Using visual media to chart my feelings, thoughts and state of mind, I'm aiming to create one piece of work per day. I've set myself ground rules, which include:

* creating the work at a similar time of day (early evening)
* with a time limit of approxiately 1 hour.
* using my paints/pens and readily available materials (includes a small number of pre-made canvases)
* each portrait is to be in square format.
* only one 'take', no second chances

The start date was Sunday 25th May. I'm hoping I can sustain it until the opening night of the Cardiff School of Art and Design (CSAD) degree show on 7th June - this will be the final degree show at the Howard Gardens campus, a historic time, after which the university is closing its 48 year old buildings (and no doubt demolishing them).

Time-specific art appeals to my sensibilities. If nothing else it annoys the traditionalists who believe art should be timeless. I've a long interest in historical records, having been actively interested in local and family history since my teens. In addition, I volunteer with a mental health charity and have an interest in the use of art as a therapy, an exploration of inner thoughts. People with a mental illness are sometimes encouraged to record a 'mood diary' and, as everyone should be reminded, we all have 'mental health' of varying quality.

Only ...erm ...time will tell whether this experiment sustains itself and produces interesting results...

This is Democracy

"This is Democracy" (detail)

Recently I submitted a piece of writing and an image of one of my early screen prints, This is Democracy, to artist/curator Shaun Featherstone's Red Shoes publication. The magazine was published last week and, though the piece of writing made the final cut, the artwork didn't. That's a shame particularly for an 'artist led' political publication, but I remain optimistic that the Red Shoes initiative will do good things.

I'm fond of my early artworks (such as This is Democracy) which tentatively explored the cross-over between art and politics. TiD took an image of a mass public demonstration and superimposed it on a floral cotton fabric. This was a common theme in my work, which questioned whether art had real power to influence events. Though artists often play a part in wider political movements, their artwork takes part in a dialogue safely contained within the confines of the art milieu. Well, I was young(er) and cynical of everything in those days, but I think I made a valid point.

The power of art lies in its ability to encourage people to see (and engage in) their world from a slightly different perspective. Humans are fundamentally cooperative, creative and curious animals. Artists have sought, for many decades, to take their creativity to a wider audience outside the traditional art gallery context. Then it often gets reigned in and neutered!

Well, the curtain material shops in City Road, Cardiff, are still flourishing and I may soon pay them another visit. But maybe the debate should move onto different ground, such as the one Red Shoes is trying to inhabit.

"Red Shoes" events take place at G39 Gallery, Cardiff and (no doubt) the streets between May and October 2014.

Shift in Focus

A potentially interesting photography exhibition opened in Cardiff this weekend - "Shift: Ukraine in Crisis" at the Third Floor Gallery in Butetown. As the title suggests, the subject is the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, where pro-Europeans and pro-Russians are becoming increasingly violent towards one another. With an election looming in Ukraine at the end of May 2014, the exhibition intends to change its display at the end of the month - hence the "Shift", or what the exhibition blurb calls a "dynamic curatorial event".

Certainly in the world of fine art gallery system there is rarely an opportunity to react quickly to events. Exhibitions are booked months or years in advance. Art is traditionally expected to address 'timeless' themes and art production often uses labourious time-consuming methods of creation. Last year I came across a Danish fine artist, Thierry Geoffroy, who had attempted to address the problem. His 'Emergency Room' exhibitions give regular opportunities (often daily) for the exhibitors to enter the gallery and amend or replace their works as outside events progress.

Photography at least has the advantage of having a variety of regularly published news platforms - papers, magazines - as an outlet for its reportage. Digital photographs can be emailed within seconds. The Third Floor exhibition errs away from journalism and heavily towards the 'arty' photograph, laiden with symbolism and, dare I say, a beautiful but static view of a bloody civil war. It is open to question whether such a controlled, sparce and traditional display fits with the aspiration of dynamism, change and response.

Of course, every exhibition of art and photography that encourages the audience to scrutinise images and consider their attitudes to major world events is a very good thing indeed. All credit goes to the photographers (and subjects) for their courage and creativity in a hostile environment. In my humble view the "Shift" idea has potential to be taken much further in the future than it is on this occasion.

Website: http://www.thirdfloorgallery.com/
Exhibition runs till 22 June, with a 'shift' scheduled for between 26 May and 1 June.