Creative Futures

‘One object really caught my eye, it was an odd looking box which seemed out of place amongst the other objects, as I looked at it.’ A pop-up gallery and studio housing a diverse group of contemporary artists. The space includes work by digital artists, sound and video installation artists painters and contemporary crafts people. The beautiful, crumbling building has work by working artists in pop-up studios, as well as exhibitions and installations in its many nooks and rooms. Together they create an unusual and memorable labyrinthine experience that transcends the buildings history. On my visit to the ‘Haus of Helfa’ one artists stood out for me. Neil Coombs is an artist who works in a range of media, his work is informed by surrealism and, as such deals with explorations of the marvelous manifested in the everyday. He is the founder and editor of the international surrealist journal Patricide. His most recent work has involved photography, collage and photo-montage. At the ‘Haus of Helfa’ he has produced a series of mirrored boxes that intervene in the structure of the building as inserts into columns that appear to be part of the structure of the house. The four boxes reflect their contents to infinity, we can look into the boxes but we cannot see out of them. Each box is placed at a different scenario that can be read as an element in an interlinked narrative. Underpinning the Last Infinities project is the nation that ideologies endlessly repeat themselves in culture – becoming diluted, corrupted and eventually lost. In the meantime our humanity returns us to the mysteries of death, desire, sex, love and the sensory experience of we, the living.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Zvz4hFeh4

This is the video I made using things that interested me artists that interested me. Im not happy with my video and I really need to broaden my video skills allowing me to make better things on premier pro.

Galeri Exhibition – Investiture of Prince Charles

When I first found out about the Galeri Exhibition that I would be taking part in I was really looking forward to the challenge. We were given a brief ‘Caernarfon’, our work had to be something to do with Caernarfon, the history the buildings the people etc. I decided to o with the history of the investiture of Prince Charles that took place in the walls of Caernarfon Castle in 1969.

Instead of looking at the history of the investiture the way that every other person would look, I look at the history of the investiture in a welsh Nash way, looking at the protests against prince Charles and the run up to the day of the investiture and how the people of wales tried to stop this from happening.

 

The investiture of The Prince of Wales, during which the 20-year-old Prince received the insignia as the 21st Prince of Wales from The Queen, took place on 1st July 1969, at Caernarfon Castle in front of 4,000 guests inside the medieval walls.

Thousands more were in the dry moat and outside the castle, and millions around the world watched on television.

The Queen had created her eldest son Prince of Wales when he was nine years old. The Queen later let it be known that the Investiture would be held when The Prince was old enough to understand fully its significance.

In a ceremony with many historic echoes, directed largely by the Constable of the Castle, Lord Snowdon, The Queen invested The Prince with the Insignia of his Principality and Earldom of Chester: a sword, coronet, mantle, gold ring and gold rod.

The Prince’s formal response was: “I, Charles, Prince of Wales, do become your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship and faith and truth I will bear unto you to live and die against all manner of folks.”

A loyal address from the people of Wales was read in Welsh and English by Sir Ben Bowen Thomas, President of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where The Prince had studied Welsh language and history in the months before the ceremony.

In his address the President said the Principality looked forward to a period when The Prince would associate himself personally with its tradition and language, its aspirations and problems. “In this confidence and hope we greet him and declare our loyalty.”

The Prince of Wales replied in Welsh and English. In the Welsh part of his speech, he said it was his firm intention to associate himself with as much of the life of the Principality as possible.

He said: “It is with a certain sense of pride and emotion that I have received these symbols of office, here in this magnificent fortress, where no one could fail to be stirred by its atmosphere of time-worn grandeur, nor where I myself could be unaware of the long history of Wales and its determination to remain individual and to guard its own particular heritage – a heritage that dates back into the mists of ancient British history, that has produced many brave men, princes, poets, bards, scholars, and, more recently, great singers, a very memorable ‘Goon’, and eminent film stars. All these people have been inspired in some way by this heritage.”

In English, The Prince spoke of his determination to try to live up to the changing demands on a Prince of Wales, adding: “One thing I am clear about, and it is that Wales needs to look forward without forsaking the traditions and essential aspects of her past. The past can be just as much a stimulus to the future as anything else.”

After a short religious service in both languages, The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, led The Prince to Queen Eleanor’s Gate, looking out over Caernarfon’s Castle Square, and presented him to the crowds below.

Other members of the Royal Family at the ceremony were Princess Anne (now The Princess Royal), Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, The Duchess of Gloucester, Prince Richard of Gloucester, The Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, Princess Alexandra and the Hon Angus Ogilvy, and Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

 The investiture was watched by millions on television, and attracted large and excited crowds in Caernarfon, but it also aroused considerable hostility among a minority of nationalist and republican Welsh people, some of whom were under constant police surveillance and were the subject of much intimidation from the secret services.Threats of violence ensued as well as a short bombing campaign, although these acts were generally more related to the greater nationalist campaign for Welsh Independence. The nationalist campaign against the investiture culminated with an attempted bombing by two members of the Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru  (Movement for the Defence of Wales). On the eve of the investiture 2 bombers were killed whilst placing a bomb outside government offices in Abergele. In recent years, it has been claimed that the KGB plotted to disrupt the proceedings by bombing a bridge in Porthmadog.

Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru

Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, abbreviated as MAC, was a paramilitary welsh nationalist welsh, which was responsible for a number of bombing incidents between 1963 and 1969.

MAC was initially set up in response to the flooding of the Afon Tryweryn valley and the flooding of the village of Capel Celyn to provide water for Liverpool. Its founders were Owain Williams, John Albert Jones and Emyr Llywelyn Jones. On 10 February 1963 a transformer at the dam construction site was blown up by three men, of whom one, Emyr Llywelyn Jones, was identified, convicted and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. MAC blew up an electricity pylon at Gellilydan on the day of his conviction. This led to the arrest and conviction of Owain Williams and John Albert Jones.

The leadership of the organization was later taken over by John Bernard Jenkins, a former non-commissioned officer in the British Army’s Royal Army medical corps. Under his leadership, MAC was suspected by British police to have been behind the bombing of the Clywedog dam construction site in 1966.In 1967 a pipe carrying water from Lake Vyrnwy to Liverpool was blown up. Later the same year MAC exploded a bomb at the Temple of Peace and Health in Cardiff’s civic center, close to a venue which was to be used for a conference to discuss the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. In 1968 a tax office in Cardiff was blown up, followed the same year by the Welsh Office building in the same city, then another water pipe at Helsby, Chesire. In April 1969 a tax office in Chester was the next target.

On 30 June 1969, the evening before the investiture, two members of MAC, Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, were killed when a bomb they had been placing near government offices exploded prematurely. On the day of the investiture, two other bombs were planted in Caernarfon, one in the local police constable’s garden which exploded as the 21 gun salute was fired. Another was planted in an iron forge near the castle but failed to go off. The final bomb was placed on the Llandudno Pier and was designed to stop the Royal Yacht Britannia from docking – this too failed to explode.

In November 1969 John Jenkins was arrested, and in April 1970 was convicted of eight offences involving explosives and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. In an interview shown on the BBC2 4 July 2009, John Jenkins repeated his intention that the bombs were never planted or timed to hurt people but just to disrupt the ceremony. Although there were further bombings, there is no evidence that MAC were involved.

 

My first plan was to make small text pieces using songs and text pieces and my thoughts and other peoples thoughts about the investiture. I made screen prints of the text pieces that weren’t going well to start off with, my prints were bleeding and the text I wanted to use was too delicate for the screen prints and that’s why it was bleeding.

Looking over and over at the screen prints I then thought ‘why don’t i incorporate the bleeding text with my work?’ Looking at the bleeding text it reminded me of how the welsh language was deteriorating.

Fy Ngwlad – Gerallt Lloyd Owen

Wylit, wylit, Lywelyn

Wylit waed pe gwelit hyn.

Ein calon gan estron wr,

Ein coron gan goncwerwr,

A gwerin o ffafrgarwyr

Llariaidd eu gwên lle’r oedd gwyr.

Fe rown wên i’r Frenhiniaeth,

Nid gwerin nad gwerin gaeth.

Byddwn daeog ddiogel A dedwydd iawn,

doed a ddêl,

Heb wraidd na chadwynau bro,

Heb ofal ond bihafio.

Ni’n twyllir hyn hir gan au Hanesion rhyw hen oesau.

Y ni o gymedrol nwyd

Yw’r dynion a Brydeiniwyd,

Ni yw’r claear wladgarwyr,

Eithafol ryngwladol wyr.

Fy ngwlad, fy ngwlad,

cei fy nghledd

Yn wridog dros d’anrhydedd.

O gallwn, gallwn golli

Y gwaed hwn o’th blegid di.

This Poem was very important throughout my work to say the least, from this poem I had all the ideas, and in my opinion this poem is a strong poem and most welsh nationalist would agree I think that when Gerallt Lloyd Owen was writing this poem about the investiture, he wasn’t just writing his own thoughts down he was writing this over most people of Wales.

 

Dafydd Iwan – Croeso Chwe deg Nain

Mae pawb wedi meddwi, mae Taid ar y sbri,

Mae cath drws nesa’ ar ôl cath ni

Mae llun y Duke of Norfolk uwch ben y lle tân,

A mam tu ôl i’r piano yn canu ‘Calon Lân’.

Croeso chwe deg Nain, croeso chwe deg Nain

Mae Nain yn naw deg yn dweud ei bod yn chwe-deg,

A dannedd gosod Taid ym myg y Prins.

Cymanfa fawr y pentre sy’n rhan o’r hwyl a’r sbri,

A phawb o’r capel nesa’ yn dod i’n capel ni,

Daeth modryb o America a modryb o Siapan

I ganu ‘Haleliwia’ i frawd bach Princess Anne.

Mae’r fuwch yn y beudy yn brefu am y llo,

A ’does dim angen gofyn beth fydd ei enw o

Ond mae’r hwch fawr gefn-ddu yn gwrthod cael moch bach,

Am ei bod hi’n gwrthwynebu cymryd rhan yn y strach!

Ffenestri wedi’u paentio yn goch a gwyn a glas,

A llun y Cwîn o’r cwtsh-dan-stâr wedi cael dod mas,

Llun Lloyd George yn y pasej, a’r Diwc ar yr hen focs te,

Ond mae’r babi wedi stico chewing-gum yn groes i’w lygad dde!

Mae Mam wedi dysgu’r plant bach drwg sy’ wedi mynd oddi ar y rêls,

I ganu mewn falsetto ‘God Bless The Prince of Wales’,

Mae’r ffys wedi hala Wili’n od – mae’n siarad hefo fe’i hun,

A Maltilda yn y bathrwm yn dysgu ‘God Save The Queen’.

Another key piece in my work was this song by Dafydd Iwan, i found this piece of writing to be cleverly written, it was about how Dafydd Iwan came to terms with what was happening in Caernarfon but not only how he felt but how other people around him came to terms with what was happening.

My final pieces and the work I was going to put up on display in the galeri were layered pieces of text and photos of all things to do with the investiture, my thoughts and others peoples thoughts and all the information I had collected over the past few weeks working up to the exhibition.

 

I believe I did quite well in the job I was given the job of organisation and contacting the galeri itself to make sure the exhibition went to plan. I  found this job quite stressful because sometimes not everything went to plan and it was difficult to get the team to work together as a team, but we all came together in the end and I believe we put on a good show.

 

The job of a gallery technician varies depending on the gallery: whether it is public or private, its size, and the type of exhibitions and artwork on show.

In addition to working behind the scenes, some technicians might also have responsibility for the general maintenance of a gallery space, or for the day-to-day operations of an organisation. Some technicians are freelance, so have the opportunity to work in a range of different spaces, with a variety of people.

Choose a theme. It’s not enough to simply have lots of artwork you’d like to exhibit; in order to tie each piece together, you need to come up with a focus. More importantly, however, this doubles as a marketing technique – especially for little-known or unknown artists – by drawing people who are specifically interested in the concept being explored. For this reason, it’s important not to be vague; “Light and Shadow” isn’t going to have people lining up to see an exhibit.

• Choosing a theme will also help with a few of the more practical aspects of the exhibit, such as what to title it and which other artists might be included.

Find other artists to exhibit with. Browse at local art clubs or street markets where you see artists with good work on sale. Ask anyone you know who is an artist in your community. Artists with related (or even contradictory) themes will help create a group momentum.

• Don’t limit yourself to artists within your own medium. Consider paintings, sculptures, models, photos, glass work, performance pieces, etc. to create dynamic collaborations.

Find a location for your exhibition. Renting a portion of a studio is always a possibility, especially if you have connections in the art community. Depending on the scale of the project, however, many different kinds of spaces will do, including a warehouse, restaurant, café, library, or even someone’s home. Ensure that the space chosen is well-presented, clean, and appropriately sized for your exhibit.

• Be sure to choose a place that is thematically appropriate for your work. A modern space with laminated flooring and white or pale, un-patterned walls will go with just about any exhibit; however, if your exhibit has an industrial, outdoorsy, dark, romantic, or sterile atmosphere, a comfortable modern setting might not give it the right context.
• Pay particular attention to available lighting. Large windows can be good, and track lighting can be especially useful in illuminating the work.

Set a date. Give yourself plenty of time to pull everything together or else you might end up with a sloppy job and poor sales. It is always best to hold an art exhibition so that it includes a weekend. This will allow those working during weekdays to attend and often families will make an outing of the event.

• If you have any idea what the weather’s going to be like around the time of your exhibition, try to go for a dark, cold, rainy couple of days. You don’t want to compete with beach balls and picnics for your viewers’ time.

Set prices. Consider all of your costs including the fee for renting the space, the materials, advertising, the artist’s share, your share, and any percentage donated to charity. Decide whether an admission fee will be necessary or appropriate.

Be sales-savvy. In addition to selling the artwork, it can also be profitable to print cards with photos of the artwork and sell in packs of five or so. If a percentage (or all) of the proceeds go to charity, there’s a better chance people will come and buy the artwork.

Tackle the red tape. Among other things, you will need art-exhibit/event insurance (or signed waivers from the artists), a schedule and helpers to coordinate artwork drop-offs and pick-ups, the particulars of how each piece should be presented, placed, hung, lighted, etc., the artists’ resumes (to keep on hand and in a binder for the show), a master price list, gallery sitters to stay with the work at all times (perhaps requiring participating artists to do a shift), and other logistical details. The best way to address these issues is to go to other shows, openings, and galleries and brainstorm with people who have done it on your area.

Advertise the exhibition. Create post cards for the artists to send as invitations. Consider doing press releases for higher-level exhibits. Put up posters around local art schools, universities, trendy areas, cafes, clubs, or even supermarket bulletin boards. Get in touch with local newspapers and tell them about the upcoming exhibition.

Set up the exhibition space. Imagine how a visitor will interact with the room. Obviously, the arrangement will need to have a visual flow, but you should also consider physically directing people through the space to make them participants as well as viewers. Which piece will they see first? What direction are the likely to move in? Are there any “dead” areas? Would hampered movement perhaps be more appropriate to the theme of the exhibit?

• Consider adding descriptions to any or all of the pieces.
• Ensure that there are signs indicating whether or not people may touch or interact with the pieces.
• Always make the prices clearly visible.
• Transport the artwork carefully. Remember that stacking heavy, framed pieces can result it shattered glass. Arrange the artwork in the space using your own judgement.

Entertain with food and drink. If you can afford it, offer beverages such as champagne, wine and non-alcoholic choices, along with finger food or a buffet. Or, reserve this just for the opening night or morning to share among those who come to an invitation-only opening.

• If it is an elegant affair, serve finger foods like shrimp, falafel, and mini-quiches. Provide a pleasant background atmosphere.
• If it enhances the experience, play music at a low level, especially at the end when people start leaving.

Going to the Galeri to take my work down I had a look in the comments book, my work was very controversial there were good comments and bad comments about my work but mostly bad, of people thinking i was racist, which I am not, I think today’s generation are too ready to use the word racist and don’t understand art to the full.

‘I wanted a reaction, I got a reaction.’

I thoroughly enjoyed my galeri experience although it was stressful at times, I wouldn’t think twice about doing it again.