Women's Language: A Celebration

I have been invited to exhibit alongside some great artists in honour of my former lecturer and mentor Sue Griffith, who sadly past away last summer. I am showing ink drawings of the Victorian opera singer Adelina Patti who lived at Craig Y Nos Castle at the head of the Tawe Valleys. Whilst on a residency at the mansion in July 2010, Sue visited regularly as research for the beautiful essay which she wrote for my first publication also titled Craig Y Nos. It is an honour to have known her, let alone have had her write about my work.

I am looking forward to celebrating her life and love of art at this special exhibition which takes place on Wednesday February the 8th, 5pm at the Dynevor Centre for Art, Design and Media.

Exhibiting Artist's are:

Kathryn Ashill, Eva Bartussek, Jane Bennett , Louise Burston, Victoria Coyle, Glenys Cour, Kath Clewett, Sharon Cooper, Tamara Dellutri, Beate Gegenwart, Julia Griffiths Jones, Karen Ingham, Bella Kerr, Denise Kwan, Dalit Leon, Anna Lewis, Andrea Liggins, Edith Maybin, Elizabeth Brickell, Angela Maddock, Linda Nottingham, Eilish O’Donohoe, Anne Price Owen, Erin Rickard, Amanda Roberts, Sarah Hopkins, Sarah Tombs, Ann Jordan, Stephanie Tuckwell, Jenny Vobe -Tancock, Catrin Webster, Angela Williams, Sue Williams, Gemma Copp, Emma Simmonds, Nervous Energy, Sarah Tierney

An active 2012

An image of the Mari Lwyd. On New Years Day in South Wales the Mari Lwyd is carried from door to door and crosses the threshold of your home to bring good fortune for the year.

Blwyddyn Newydd Da! 2012 is upon us and I am anticipating a busy year of making. I am working on a number of projects and working towards new exhibitions. My first exhibition of the New Year will be at the Swansea school of Art. I am honoured to be included in a show of female artist's in dedication of my former lecturer and friend Sue Griffith, who sadly passed away last July.

At present, Phil Owen (of the reading room, Arnolfini) and myself are working towards launching our new artist lead reading group at Chapter. It will be embedded in the gallery programme, and will run bi monthly. The aim of the group is to provide contextual discourse about the Chapter Gallery programme through a variety of literature, including fiction, poetry and art history texts. We are called Tooth&Clawr, and we are launching our first reading group in early March 2012.

Also in March I will continue my annual St. David's day tradition of creating a new work in honour of our patron saint and Wales. Having this date to focus on as a point for making new work has been a very encouraging process for me. Generating activity for this day has been at the core of making, whilst it also allows me to express the difficulties and delights of Welsh identity. I’m very passionate about the topic for next St. David's day celebration. Without giving too much away I will be performing a ritual that will honour Aneurin Bevan, my political icon who founded the beloved NHS.

This summer I will be busy making work for Adain Avion, which is the Welsh Cultural Olympiad project. My work will be interactive, and will focus on Swansea Market. Being a Swansea Girl (or a Jill as we are known!) I see this as a homecoming, a chance to creatively connect with my birthplace.

During May 2012 I will be undertaking a residency in Harlech with eight other international artists. Our brief is to make a transportable piece of work that fits into a volume limit of 30x60x30cm and will be touring to Poland, Italy and England. It will be a joy to have a communal living/making experience. Being around artist's 24/7 inspires me and allows me the freedom to move creatively.

Here's to a healthy, happy and creative 2012. I look forward to sharing my practice with you. Watch this space........

A Sunday Memorial

A large screen illuminated the room, with an image of a girl climbing a Cedar of Lebanon whilst attached to thirty multi coloured balloons. Purple and blue cast a cloud of colour over the audience as they witnessed the video documentation of me leaping from the tree at Cathays Cemetery in July. Sounds of drumming and thudding came from the bright balloons, and echoed through level 3 of St. David’s Hall. This was the day that the Balloon Girl team and myself had been gearing towards for nearly a year. From the moment Id approached a talented filmmaker, writer, photographer and graphic designer with my idea’s and visual aims. We were all extremely proud and I’m so happy to have shared this work with everyone. It has expanded from detailed sketches and notes I made (this is an integral part of the performance process for me) into the live work, and then the film installation and publication.

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported this project.

For more details of the launch, please visit:

www.inmemoryofballoongirl.blogspot.com

Diolch x

Invitation

I am very excited and nervous about the launch of publication and film installation, which takes place at st.David's Hall in two weeks time. Please join me to celebrate the finale of this project and to witness the film installation of video documentation from the live performance that took place in july of this year.

Please refer to the project blog and facebook page or further details:

http://www.inmemoryofballoongirl.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/groups/188857767834906/?refid=52

An Experimental Autumn

I am so grateful to all the artists who took time and energy to make beautiful artworks for Cardiff and Experimentica 1.1. Discussion and learning were the key ingredients for the weeklong art festival. A strong sense of community developed through the regular breakfast meeting; a chance to eat breckie and talk over the previous days art making. A contextual library became a supportive artist hub, where people could congregate between making and seeing. Sleeping overnight at Chapter Arts Centre was such a fun and unique way to spend time alongside the other artists. During the night we consumed lots of Lambrini, sweets, popcorn and dodgy horror movies. The experience of witnessing the new and exciting work taking place by international artist was overwhelming and inspiring. Thank you to my volunteer team who worked so hard and supported me throughout the festival. Thank you to Cathy Boyce and James Tyson for giving me the opportunity to help shape the festival. Most importantly, a big thank you to the artist’s who showed complete dedication to their work and Experimentica.

A complete archive of the weeks activities is available online at Culture Colony and on the Live Art Live Blog by Random People. Please follow the bellow links for further information:

http://www.culturecolony.com/videos?id=7348

http://liveartliveblog.net/

Green Eyed Monster Documentation

Her green eyed gaze flickered angrily.

Wildly fanning herself to cool down the rage of jealousy.

Jealousy towards the yummy mummies with the promise of family and love,

Jealousy towards the young beautiful ladies promenading along the lagoon,

Jealousy towards loved up couples romancing.

With her fan and her goggles she takes on my fury.

Fury at everything I am not.

Replacing me at my performance post

Replicating

Reinterpreting

Exorcising my Green Eyed Monster.

On October 3rd 2011, Nia Metcalfe stood on my behalf at Via Garibaldi and made my performance for me. Nia, who is one part of the public art organisation Elbow Room, curated four artists (Sean Edwards, Mark Gubb, Molly Rooke and myself) to show in Venice whilst she was invigilating for the Welsh Pavilion. The artists were invited to give Nia the project that they wished for her to make on their behalf. Thus blurring the typical roles of artist and curator.

It was difficult for me, as the immediacy and directness I gain from making performance art was lost. On the other hand I have passed on my vision to her, and she created exactly what was in my minds eye.

Having had the performance idea for Green Eyed Monster brewing for a considerable length of time it felt fitting to pass it onto Nia, a trusted friend and someone that I admire creatively.

The performance lasted for three hours. No food or drink was consumed and Nia remained barefoot throughout. These are important rules I follow when making my durational work.

Thank you to Tom Goddard for documenting the work for me.

Id like to thank Nia for taking on the responsibility of making this work for me, and for being brave in inviting people to gaze.

Green Eyed Monster

Green Eyed Monster is a new performance work that explores the madness of jealousy. Its a project I have been developing for a while. Chapter 3 of John Burger' The Ways of Seeing has contributed to the themes behind this work, and I aim to look at the notion of the surveyed women, trained from an early age to objectify other women and see their potential threat. This project has been realised with the curatorial vision of Nia Metcalfe, and I am very grateful for her mentoring and support.

I look forward to sharing the imagery with you.