Audiovisual Representations of National Identity for Small Nations: Web 2.0, BBC Wales, S4C, ITV Wales, Welsh TV and Film, Modern Writers from Wales, Welsh-North American, Cymreig Culture, Scottish Films, British Films, Sinema Cymru, Celtic music and movies, UK Filmmakers, Irish TV and Film, Cymru. Celtic Folk Music, Welsh Hymnology and Poetry. Le Cinéma Québécois, le cinéma Bretagne et des autres pays Celtiques. Tutte le cose celtiche, britanniche, gaeliche, scozzese e gallese.
[Pictured above: George Ewart Evans (1909, Abercynon, South Wales – 1988) was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and produced eleven books of collections of these materials.]
My esteemed colleague Professor Hamish Fyfe writes to us:
Dear Colleagues,
A date for your diaries
The 1st of April 2009 marks the centenary of the birth of the writer and pioneer oral historian George Ewart Evans. His name is eponymous to the Centre for Storytelling here in CCI. George was born in Abercynon but completed most of his seminal work in Suffolk.
The gathering here in Atrium on the 1st of April will bring together significant figures to consider his life, his work and his legacy..
These will include his son the former Faber and Faber Chairman Matthew Evans, David Gentleman the artist, Colin Thomas the film-maker our colleague the historian Gareth Williams who is Evans’s biographer.
If you know about Evans’s work come and join us in celebrating, if you don’t come and learn more about the man and his work from those that knew, read and have been influenced by him . . .
Hamish Fyfe
Professor Hamish Fyfe,
Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries
When I arrived in Wales almost four years ago to begin my doctoral studies, one of the first places I wandered into was the old Victorian laundry turned into a combination studio and gallery, called Tactile Bosch, located in Llandaf, which I reached by biking along the Taff Trail.
We have a similar enclave in South Florida called the Bake House and I knew several of the Welsh artists after promoting their work at a gallery show in Manhattan, so I was keen to see what all the excitement was about in South Wales.
Apparently South Wales has a long and established pedigree as British artists' preferred place for living and working, going back to the 1960s art explosion associated with the Barry College Summer School, which Dr. Heike Roms has documented in her recent research.
Read more about Dr. Roms remarkable investigation here:
When I'm lucky enough to be relaxing at our home in Miami Beach during the annual winter Basel Art Festival, my fashionable or Bohemian NYC artist friends tell me that if they moved to Europe they would move to Berlin, for its cheap cost of living and high standard of living related to the growing cluster of artists who have moved there from around the world, along with Berlin's great mix of unverisities, museums, and quirky neighborhoods, etc.
From what my Welsh artist friends tell me, Cardiff and South Wales have a similar appeal (albeit on a smaller scale when compared to Miami Beach or Berlin) for British artists who want to live and create somewhere in the UK that's both affordable and stimulating, but aren't quite ready to learn to speak German . . .
Which brings me to back to those wild and crazy but extremely talented folks who create and exhibit at Llandaf's Tactile Bosch.
Check out their latest exhibit, you won't regret it!
Exhibit background notes:
Trace / Taenu opened in London on the 23rd of May 2007 in the Woburn Studios, Bloomsbury, and ran until the 26th of May 2007.
Organized by MA students from the SLADE School of Fine Art, the exhibition featured those from the ‘media’ department, who work and experiment with photography, film, performance, video, installation and sound.
After the success the London show the SLADE collective retained a hard-core group of 28 practitioners taking the exhibition to Stolzestrasse 11, [Konstablerwache] in Frankfurt.
They will showcase a site specific version of the new work produced during 2007 @ tactileBOSCH from Sat 16th - Sat 24th Feb. Opening @ 6.30pm on Saturday 16th Feb.
[Pictured above: Situated in a reclaimed Victorian Laundry in the Llandaff North section of Cardiff UK, opened as a fledgling art facility in June 2000. Primarily used as artists studios and an alternative exhibition space filling that time honoured tradition of artist led space . . .]
Recognising common subjects of investigation, which had emerged in the preceding months, the general term ‘contrast’ was selected as a working title by the artists.
The term referred to obvious formal contrasts explored such as black and white and light and shadow, and regarding content- contradictions and exaggerations, fiction and reality.
After in-depth discussion emphasis was placed on the play with light, use of black-and-white studies and a sense of theatricality, as the major themes or interests of the exhibition.
The title "Taenu" [meaning trace elements or dust left covering remains] was developed, capturing the essence of the "quiet" statements observed in all participating artists and their work.
Showing experimental films, videos, installations, photographs and drawings. The exhibition highlights the strong shift in creative expression and social sensitivity seen in the last few years.
Young artists are no longer interested in using complex interweaving, aggressive methods and shock tactics in their art but follow a more rigid, calculated and understated direction: although leaving traces quietly, they are no less determined.
The work appears "natural", its casualness is convincing, as art should not be any more exerted; but is volatile, surprising, precise and significant.
Since the participating artists originate from many different countries, it will be a chance to see international post graduate students evolve work in situ @ the studio before taking the exhibition up to Liverpool to showcase their endeavours further during Liverpool’s’ City of Culture 2008.
[Pictured above: An old photograph of the late Victorian laundry while it still operated, and before being turned into an eclectic-cum-Early-Edwardian-minimalist-centre for a local Welsh art explosion.]
Several participants intend to take the exhibition to their home cities.
Which range from Korea – Japan, Poland to Spain drawing attention to the wide range of talent emerging from the Slade School of Fine Art to the international art arena.
Trace / Taenu An Exhibition @ tactileBOSCH by the SLADE MA Fine Art & Media Collective. Opens: Sat 16th Feb @ 6.30pm
If you go:
tactileBOSCH is located on Andrews Rd, Llandaff North Cardiff Tel. +44 07951 256255
Arrivals by train to Cardiff Central Station plus a local link up to Llandaff Station;
Local Bus #25 takes you from town centre up Cathedral Rd and drops right at the end of Andrews Rd opposite Glan Taff School;
Bike Ride up the Taff Trail but don't forget to pull off at Hayley Park [by the Tennis Courts]
Take a sweater the heating in the old building is funkkier than the folks who perfrom and exhibit there -- of course, there's usually a wine bar or cuppah to be had. Tell them I sent you . . .
Tony Whitehead is Cinema Programmer at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. He also works as a part-time lecturer in film at the University of Glamorgan. His book on Mike Leigh has just been published by Manchester University Press.
Tony Whitehead in among the film students' favourite lecturers at the University of Glamorgan, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries ATRiuM (CCI) Film & Media department, currently teaching 'Screen Language' and other courses.
Tony Whitehead's new book on Mike Leigh is actually enjoyable, not to mention that Leigh himself endorsed it.
It's a wonderful trip down memory lane, revisiting every character and hilariously tragic line of dialogue from Bleak Moments to Vera Drake. Vanessa Gildea, Film Ireland --Vanessa Gildea, Film Ireland
Mike Leigh may well be Britain's greatest living film director; his worldview has permeated our national consciousness.
This book gives detailed readings of the nine feature films he has made for the cinema, as well as an overview of his work for television.
Written with the co-operation of Leigh himself, this is the first study of his work to challenge the critical privileging of realism in histories of the British cinema, and place the emphasis instead on the importance of comedy and humour:
of jokes and their functions, of laughter as a survival mechanism, and of characterisations and situations that disrupt our preconceptions of 'realism'.
Striving for the all-important quality of truth in everything he does, Leigh has consistently shown how ordinary lives are too complex to fit snugly into the conventions of narrative art.
Developing characters and narratives through meticulous processes of improvisation in preparation and rehearsal, Leigh has led his collaborators in creating a body of work that is utterly distinctive.
From the bittersweet observation of "Life is Sweet" or "Secrets and Lies", to the blistering satire of "Naked" and the manifest compassion of "Vera Drake", he has demonstrated a matchless ability to perceive life's funny side as well as its tragedies, establishing a unique niche in the British cinema as both humorist and humanist.
Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Manchester University Press (1 May 2007) Language English ISBN-10: 0719072379
The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations Announces Cardiff ATRiuM Calendar of Events . . .
In the Autumn Term and beyond we will be building on our research work through an exciting series of lectures, symposia, publications and other projects.
ATRiuM move:
The Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries has moved from the University's Treforest campus to our new ATRiuM home in Cardiff city centre. With ‘state of the art’ facilities this will offer exciting opportunities for joint work with new partners.
Symposium: ‘The Representation of Welsh Identity Abroad’ 13-14th November 2007
On 13th and 14th November 2007 the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations is hosting a symposium on The Representation of Welsh Identity Abroad. The Keynote Address will be delivered by First Minister, Rhodri Morgan AM, on the evening of Tuesday 13th November.
[Pictured above: Welsh National Assembly First Minister: Rhodri Morgan]
On Wednesday 14th November, a diverse group of arts and cultural practitioners and academics will address the symposium theme through a series of focused conversations and group exercises. These discussions will be set within the context of what is now a key economic sector, the creative and cultural industries.
[Pictured above: The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.]
We are most fortunate to have Dr Betty Belanus, Curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, as a participant at this symposium. Dr Belanus is currently a Visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations.
The symposium will be held in the ATRiuM, the University of Glamorgan’s new faculty in Cardiff city centre.
Please contact Jackie Aplin (address below) for a registration form and further details.
Public Lecture on Small-Nation Filmmaking by Professor Mette Hjort, 5.30pm Weds 28th November 2007
Pictured above: Dr. Mette Hjort]
Mette Hjort was born in Denmark but educated in Kenya, Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Canada and France. She did her B.A. and M.A. at McGill University in Quebec, Canada, where she did a thesis on Kant and art under the supervision of the Canadian philosopher and political theorist, Charles Taylor.
She holds a so-called ‘nouveau doctorat’ from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. Her dissertation, entitled ‘Le procès du spectacle’ was written under the supervision of Louis Marin and focussed on anti-theatricality (pamphlet literature and treatises) in seventeenth century France and sixteenth century England.
Mette Hjort was for many years Associate Professor of English at McGill university, where she was Director of Film and Communications.
She moved to Denmark in 1997 for personal reasons and is currently on leave from her position as Professor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Aalborg University.
Mette Hjort is interested in the history of drama, critical theory, philosophy and literature, and minor cinema. She has published The Strategy of Letters (Harvard UP) and, with Ib Bondebjerg, an interview book entitled The Danish Directors: Dialogues on a Contemporary National Cinema (Intellect).
She is editor or co-editor of Rules and Conventions (Johns Hopkins UP), Emotion and the Arts (Oxford UP), Cinema and Nation (Routledge), The Postnational Self (U of Minnesota P) and Purity and Provocation: Dogma 95 (British Film Institute Publications).
'Small Nation, Global Cinema', a book focusing on the challenges faced by small nations in an increasingly globalized media culture, was recently published by the University of Minnesota Press, in the Public Planet series.
A monograph on Stanley Kwan's 'Center Stage' is forthcoming with the University of Hong Kong Press, in the Hong Kong Film Classics Series.
Mette Hjort is Series Editor, with Peter Schepelern, of a new Nordic Film Classics Series that will feature books by James Schamus (on Dreyer's Gertrud), John Hall and Charles Lindholm (on Bent Hamer's Kitchen Stories,) and many others.
Distinguished academic Professor Mette Hjort will be speaking at ATRiuM at 5.30pm Weds 28th November. In her only public talk in Wales, Professor Hjort will deliver a lecture on The 'Advance Party' Initiative: Scottish/Danish Solutions to the Problems of Small-Nation Filmmaking.
'Advance Party' is a Scottish Dogme project which sets out to do for Scotland what director Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 had done for Denmark. Professor Hjort will examine how this unique model of transnational filmmaking helps to provide solutions to the problems of small-nation filmmaking.
Professor Hjort is the Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Film Studies at St Andrews in Scotland and Professor of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She has published Small Nations, Global Cinema, and co-edited volumes including The Cinema of Small Nations, Cinema and Nation, The Postnational Self and Purity and Provocation: Dogme 95.
Smithsonian Institution Visiting Fellow
Folklorist Dr Betty Belanus, Curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, has joined the Centre as a Visiting Research Fellow and is undertaking preparatory work for the Smithsonian Festival's focus on Wales in 2009.
2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, DC
Since arriving, Dr Belanus has been engaged in an active period of fieldwork which has also involved consultative planning visits around Wales.
Smithsonian Internship
Glamorgan postgraduate student Dr Aparna Sharma has successfully completed an internship which was developed in collaboration between the University of Glamorgan and the Smithsonian Institution.
[Pictured above: Madhvi Dalal, 31, a dancer of Indian origin who currently lives in Cardiff, who is featured in research and articles by Dr. Aparna Sharma]
Aparna, who recently completed her PhD, is a documentary filmmaker and journalist with a particular interest in the visual representation of minority cultures and national and cultural identities.
Centre 'Round Table'
The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations held its first Round Table working lunch event in June. Expert practitioners with an interest in the Centre’s concerns were brought together to share their thoughts and inform future work.
[Pictured above: Patricia Aithie "Valleys, Wales" oil on canvas 2007 40 x 50cm sold}
The guests were photographer and painter Patricia Aithie; Artist and commentator Iwan Bala; Broadcaster and former BBC Wales arts correspondent Jon Gower; and Electoral Commissioner, Ofcom board member and former BBC Wales & ITN political editor Glyn Mathias.
A wide ranging discussion covered links with other minority cultures, particularly Galicia, cultural diversity, tribalism, faith, the decline of ideologies, democratic engagement and more.
Another event with new guests is planned for the Atrium in early 2008.
Other items of interest . . .
Channel 4: The First Twenty-Five Years
BFI / Channel 4 Conference, 17 –18th November 2007
Professor Steve Blandford, Associate Dean, Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, will present a paper on C4 and National Voices - S4C and Cinema at the British Film Institute's conference on the first 25 years of Channel Four.
Communication in the Age of Suspicion: Trust and the Media
This volume, edited by Dr Vian Bakir and Dr David Barlow, includes 14 international contributions which examine a number of media genres and media forms.
To make your reservation for the conference you must quickly contact Ms. Jackie Aplin, at the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations:
Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries / ATRiuM The University of Glamorgan Adam Street Cardiff CF24 2XF Email: jsaplin[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk Web: http://culture.research.glam.ac.uk/
[Pictured above: Conference Organizer Dr. Katie Gramich, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University]
ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2008
The focus of the twentieth annual conference of the Association for Welsh Writing in English at Gregynog Hall in Powys, Wales, UK from April 4-6, 2008 will be ‘On The Edge: Margins and Peripheries in Welsh Writing.’
The theme is open to a range of interpretations, both literal and symbolic.
On the literal (littoral?) level, Welsh writers have long been engaged in representing the coastline and islands of Wales, from Allen Raine’s Cardiganshire cliffs and caves to Dylan Thomas’s Rhossili and the marginal estuary town of Under Milk Wood . . .
More recently, Brenda Chamberlain and Christine Evans have provided powerful poetic accounts of living on the edge in Bardsey Island, while R. S. Thomas spent his later years probing life out on the limb of the Llŷn peninsula.
Other writers, like Emyr Humphreys and Kate Roberts, have seen Wales on the uncomfortable edge of Empire, while many Welsh works, like Raymond Williams’s Border Country, have explored the liminal spaces between nations, and between the rural and the industrial.
International artistic movements are often interpreted differently by writers of ‘marginal’ status, such as the Welsh Modernism of Glyn Jones or the Anglo-Welsh Romanticism of Felicia Hemans or Ann of Swansea.
Welsh identities, too have frequently been represented as edgy and fractured, such as in the multiple selves projected in the work of David Jones, Dannie Abse, or Charlotte Williams.
More recently, Welsh writers have explored cultural, ethnic and linguistic margins in productive experiments with form and symbolism, as in the writing of Lloyd Jones, Gwyneth Lewis, or Peter Ho Davies.
This conference will be an opportunity to explore the various edges of Welsh writing: those places where the self comes up against the something else which, arguably, defines it as what it is.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are invited on any aspect of the theme ‘On The Edge: Margins and Peripheries in Welsh Writing.’
Both short papers (c. 20 minutes) or longer ones (c. 50 minutes) will be considered; a brief abstract should be submitted to the organizer for consideration by the deadline of December 14th, 2007.
Organizer: Dr. Katie Gramich, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU. Email: GramichK@cf.ac.uk;
[Pictured above: Professor Mike Wilson, CCI Head of Research; Prof Richard Hand Professor of Theatre and Media Drama, CCI, backstage in Glasgow with Dr Paul Carr Principal Lecturer in Popular Music, CCI.]
Coward Play Rediscovered
September 2007
A Noel Coward play, which has remained untouched for almost 90 years, has been rediscovered by academics at the University of Glamorgan’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries.
[Pictured above: Sir Noël Peirce Coward, 16 December 1899 -- 26 March 1973.]
The play, ‘The Better Half’, was discovered in the Lord Chamberlain’s archives in the British Library by Professors Richard Hand and Mike Wilson during research for their latest book, ‘London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror’, which includes the text of Coward’s previously unpublished play.
The one-act play was last performed in 1922 by ‘London’s Grand-Guignol’ company, which involved Sybil Thorndike and her husband Lewis Casson.
Professor Wilson explained, “We were conducting research for our book on ‘London’s Grand-Guignol’, a theatre which combined horror and comedy plays on the same bill and were thrilled to have found the manuscript to the play that Coward wrote for the company.
It was probably the only surviving copy of the play and has not been published before.
“This play will no doubt arouse the interest of Coward fans worldwide, especially as it was written at a time when Coward was on the threshold of achieving critical acclaim and fame.”
Now for the first time since the 1920s the play will be performed in London by theatre company ‘The Sticking Place’ as part of their annual Hallowe’en season of horror theatre.
Noel Coward Performance (Noel Coward performs some of his song on "Noel Coward & Mary Martin: Together With Music")
This will be a unique opportunity to see the play performed in its original context.
Hand and Wilson’s new book, due to be published in November by the University of Exeter Press, focuses on the attempt to establish a permanent Grand-Guignol theatre in London between 1920 and 1922, an experiment that was ultimately undermined by the censorious eye of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, the official public censor.
The research was co-funded by The British Academy and the Society for Theatre Research.
tagged: cci research
Issued by: University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL Contact: Press Office on 01443 483362 E-mail: press@glam.ac.uk
[BREAKING NEWS: Cardiff the Capital of Wales inundated with world-reknowned filmmakers for Iris Prize awards this weekend! Hint: If you go out, take along your autograph book and digital camera, and send us your fotos of visiting celebrities!!! Read about it here:
Speaking of using your short film to become famous . . .
Silence Is Golden trailer on the BBC Film Network Showcase
[About the video: A trailer for Chris Shepherd's latest film, a period drama called SILENCE IS GOLDEN. It mixes live action with animation and follows on from his other shorts, DAD'S DEAD and WHO I AM AND WHAT I WANT. The whole 15 film is on BBC FILM NETWORK site and is going to be released on DVD later in the year.]
If you would like the chance to showcase your short film on the BBC Film Network, then this is what you need to do:
We cannot guarantee to publish every film, but we do guarantee that your film will be watched. We expect a certain level of production standards to ensure that your film is seen in the best possible environment. See our submission criteria for more information.
what you get from us If your submission is successful you'll get:
your film showcased on bbc.co.uk a dedicated film page, with links to you and your cast and crew's profile pages, allowing people who see your film to find out more about you and your work feedback on your film from other Film Network members your film seen by our Industry Panel.
what we need from you To submit your film, you need to be registered with Film Network. It'll take less than 5 minutes to create your membership.
Once you're a member, you need to fill in the online submission form. Please read and check you're happy with the submission rules before you do so.
The information that you need to give is:
your contact details your film's details - including length, funding details, production company, distribution information and weblinks a synopsis (of less than 100 words) and log line or short description (20 words) festival screenings and award details crew and cast names a short fact about the making of your film
You'll need to supply us with a hard copy of your film on either VHS or DVD (not DVD-ROM) - we'll give you address details at the end of the submission process.
If we decide to show your film, we'll then need a broadcast quality copy and copies of any stills you have associated with the film, preferably supplied as high-resolution JPEGs on CD-Rom.
Please note: We regret that we cannot return submission tapes and we do not guarantee to publish your film. If we do publish your film though, we will return any Digibetas by registered delivery.
We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers in media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, online innovations, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media and dramatic performance.
AIM -- ATRiuM Intelligent Media
Are you a member of the AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media? Why not? It’s free and some your friends are joining – so what are you waiting for?
Just what are the Five Primary Aims of AIM / ATRiuM Intelligent Media?
Our Five Primary Aims
1) We are an open and inclusive collective of student artists and student entrepreneurs who band together for social contacts, artistic education and stimulation, entertainment and all things pertaining to the advancement of our dreams and careers.
2) We devise and launch events and projects related to media, journalism, film, television, sound and video recording and distribution, set design, costume design, lighting design, concert, festival and special events promotions, online innovations, presentational graphics, photography, architecture, mixed and multi-media, dramatic performance, public speaking, performance art, individual or collaborative projects and other diversions.
3) We assist each other in developing and perfecting our art forms and professions.
4) We sponsor, attend and promote artistic, educational and social events, including imagined, narrated, fictional, real and virtual.
5) We assist one another in developing our artistic and professional portfolios, and we share these creations at various networking opportunities; with all these activities, we commit ourselves to the promotion and refinement of our own as well as our colleagues’ artistic portfolios and professional dossiers.
Is AIM a political or religious organization?
While it’s true that our ultimate goal is WORLD DOMINATION balanced with INTRINSIC FULFILLMENT nuanced with MEANINGFUL / MEANINGLESS PLEASURE enhanced by INCREDIBLY GREAT STYLE / LACK OF STYLE, and the inevitable material / spiritual gains / losses that accompany these goals, AIM respects the fact that we’re all on similar / different and interesting / mind-numbingly-boring paths; to this end, we neither affirm, deny or espouse any one political view or religious / non-religious, irrational / rational viewpoint.
Is AIM an arts club, a social fetish, a secret society, or a Cult of Personality?
It’s all of these things and none of these things. It has never existed and it has always existed. If it ceased to exist tomorrow, in the GREAT UNIVERSAL SCHEME OF THINGS, hardly anyone would care.
How do I join?
Email our Faithful Leader and Esteemed Founder, Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk
When Dr. Mark collects a sufficient number of interested students’ names and details, he will announce an initial organizational meeting.
He’ll probably call or write to you before the end of October 2007, just in time to plan your Halloween costume.
Please include at least your name, alias, email address, mailing address, interests, Zodiac sign, your favourite ice cream flavour and hat / rollerblade size. Dr. Mark will use his extraordinary intuition to guess in which century you were born.
Where will the meetings be held?
The first meeting will be held at either ATRiuM or Ty Pont Haearn in the Cardiff City Centre. ATRiuM students and Ty Pont Haearn residents will host the first meetings to assist the launch of our collective.
Later meetings will held in Newport, London, Aberystywth, Port Meirion, Castle Harlech, Salisbury Plains, among the Roman ruins of Caerleon and the Norman ruins of Ogmore Castle, online, via pod-casts and video-conferences, in eventually in Copenhagen, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto, Prague, Southern Italy, Barcelona and Amsterdam.
Conversations will take place in the past, present, future, conditional, imperative, pluperfect, and in other dimensions.
Can anyone be a member of this collective?
Well, the collective intends to include all interested residents of Ty Pont Haearn and other local student residences, communes, and shared living arrangements in the Cardiff City centre area.
Students or faculty can be affiliated with ATRiuM, UWIC, Coleg Glan Hafren, Cardiff University, Swansea University, Swansea Institute, Newport School of Art, Media and Design, or other institutions. Enthusiastic, dynamic and artistic friends and families of these students are also welcome to join.
What will be the social and political ethos / mythos of this collective?
Our collective will vacillate between historical notoriety and contemporary obscurity. We will foster greatness and encourage Misfits and other Outcasts. Invariably power struggles, nepotism, clicks, sub-groups, spin-offs, copycats, crass commercialism and other controversies will overtake our collective.
Addiction: How Many Steps?
Old Victorian Buildings Andrews Rd Cardiff Sep 22 nd - Oct 21 st
The second of 3 exhibitions; How Many Steps to…ADDICTION @ tactile BOSCH - takes us from sketch to installation before Dark Victory reveals the final outcome in November 07…asking how long does it take this addiction & how does it manifest itself inside the social order through installation?
I nstallation is made up from multiple disciplines including sculpture, architecture, new media and performance. The many facets of historical and contemporary art have exercised their influence.
The integration of different disciplines including science, technology and architecture has resulted in a new way of exploring and engaging with art resulting in a hybrid discipline.
As a universal term, Installation, incorporates a broad domain of practice within contemporary art, transcending the notion of exhibition / plinth to become a more sophisticated and engaging response to the concept of audience participation and the interaction between things and their contexts.
For the show “ How Many Steps… “ tactile BOSCH has drawn together a select group of multi disciplined artists whose diverse and experimental approach will undoubtedly provoke, inspire and question the complex & multi-faceted notions that make up ADDICTION .
e.g. Teresa Mills ' Lost Object of Desire refers to…
‘The term addiction eludes to the situation where drug procurement and administration appear to govern the individual's behavior, and where the substance seems to dominate the individual's motivational hierarchy.
Two features that distinguish addiction from other behaviors are its extreme motivational strength and its motivational toxicity.
Motivational strength refers to how hard the individual will work to obtain the substance, while motivational toxicity describes the substance's ability to disrupt the individual's normal motivations' (http://addictionscience.net)
How many Steps? Allows each artist full reign to augment, gestate & conceptually breath life into the fabric of the Old Victoria Buildings that house tactile BOSCH. Walls are removed, newly ventilated areas created, attics enhanced all to express that compelling process to produce new work…its obsessive!
The exhibition will be opened @ tactile BOSCH on Sat 22 nd Sept @ 6.30pm with the help of Mr Michael Tooby – Director of the National Galleries & Museum of Wales.
& includes: Tasos Asprou, Phil Babot, Matt Blackler, Samantha Cross, Mr & Mrs Clarke, Andrew Cooper, Ed Elliot, Simon Fenoulhet, Kim Fielding, Tom Harrup, Alison Harris, Richard Higlett, Shani Rhys James, Neil Jefferies, Michael Murray, Teresa Mills, MelvilleMitchell, Jason Pinder, Dave Shepherd, Matt Skelley & Oliver Townsend.
With special guests Endangered Andy Taylor & the Heavy Quartet
NB: NB : In addition – LAPSE - an evening of LiveArt is scheduled for Tues 16 th Oct starting @ 7pm . Designed as a preview for Experimentica 07 [starting @ CHAPTER Arts Centre on Wed 17 th Oct] LAPSE showcases emerging, experimental LIVEart within the frame Addiction… How Many Steps?
LAPSE in time with Tim Bromage, Nezakret Ekici, Beth Greenough, Sam Hassler Rufus Orsborne, Rachel Parry, Karl Price & his Dutchness - Joost Nieuwenburg - LAPSE kick-starts @ 7– 11pm on 16 th Oct [Yep! that's a Tuesday!]
The results of these conceptual explorations can be seen in situ @ tactile BOSCH inside The Old Victorians Buildings , Andrews Rd, Llandaff North, Cardiff, UK [CF14 2JP] from 22 nd Sept - Oct 21 st 2007
e. kim@tactilebosch.org / andrew_cooperrca@hotmail.com
t. studio on +44 [0] 7951 256255 / [0] 7811 387922
Addiction is supported by:
Arts Council of Wales - National Probation Service –
National Museum & Galleries of Wales - 10/10 Architects - copyhousewales
University of Glamorgan – HOS Construction
CIRIC – VisibleArt - Scweeji.com - Regan Fine Art Printers
You are invited to a screening of a short film (a collaboration between various CCI staff):
CROSSING (2007) Dur: 24 ½-minutes Directed by: Wyn Mason & Ian Wiblin Music by: Ben Challis & Rob Smith
A man and a woman take a short cut across a scarred landscape. Despite treading the same ground and seemingly sharing the same space, they remain quite separate, absorbed in their own emotional worlds. Without the aid of dialogue to unlock the characters’ thoughts, viewers can only scrutinize the locations they journey through. Slowly, step-by-step, through closely observing the shape and texture of rock, the lie of disregarded railway sleepers or wind blown grass, we begin to delineate the contours of their inner landscapes.
The film is accompanied by live music.
Exhibition: Experimentica Venue: Chapter Arts Date: Saturday 20th Oct 2007 Time: 4 pm
QUEER CYMRU 2007 is a series of performances and films to coincide with this year's Cardiff Mardi Gras.
Based at Chapter, Cardiff, Wales, UK from Straight, gay, bi sexual and trans gendered performers that challenges stereotypes and celebrates and explores diversity.
There is something here for everyone whatever your orientation, and we hope to provide a safe and alternative, stimulating environment outside of the usual 'scene.'
Special Iris Prize preview Itty Bitty Titty Committee 8.30pm Fri 31 Aug USA/2007/87 mins/ctba. Dir: Jamie Babbit (who also made 'But I'm a Cheerleader').
The story of Anna, an insecure, apolitical girl who encounters a radical political art group, falls in love with its leader, Sadie, and transforms from a girl into a woman.
A favourite on the festival circuit the film has secured many awards including South by South West, Berlin, Melbourne and the audience award in Philadelphia. The film has yet to secure UK distribution – this preview screening officially kicks off Queer Cymru 2007 and is sponsored by the Iris Prize.
“An upfront call to action that takes no prisoners and pulls no punches… For anyone in despair over the state of the world or the movies, this posse of revolting dykes deliver a mega dose of hope.” – Sight and Sound.
A Year Without Love (Un Año sin Amor) 6.30pm Tue 4 Sept Argentina/2005/95 mins/subtitled/18. Dir: Anahí Berners.
A young HIV positive poet decides to document his attempts to cure both his failing love life and health. Eventually he becomes part of an intimate leather circle and begins to fully explore his fascination with S&M practices.
Fariba escapes from Iran to Germany, fleeing persecution because of her sexuality. When her neighbour in the internment centre commits suicide, she assumes his identity to evade repatriation and passes herself off as a man.
Beyond Hatred (Au-delá de la haine) 6.30pm Thu 6 Sept France/2006/86 mins/subtitled/ctba.* Dir: Olivier Meyrou.
François Chenu was killed by three young men in a pointless attack motivated by hate.
This considered and respectful film documents some of the aftermath of his death – the steps that French society takes to achieve justice via the courts and the incredible efforts his family make to feel a personal sense of justice and peace.
QUEER CYMRU PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS:
Fri 31 Aug • 8pm Gareth Llyr Sbïwch Arnai Rwan / Before I Fade Drwy gyfnuo testun gwreiddiol a gwaith corfforol byrfyfyr, mae gwaith solo cyntaf Gareth Llyr yn darlunio pump llun ohono tra’n blentyn. Gyda cyferiadau at Sontag, Kushner, a Walter Benjamin, mae Sbïwch Arnai Rwan / Before I Fade yn archwilio’r berthynas rhwng natur diflanedig perfformiad byw a delwedd barhaus y llun ffotograffig, a’r gwirioneddau a ddaw i’r amlwg trwy edrych yn ôl.
“I am standing in my underwear. I am surrounded by a hundred and fifty blue Ty Nant water bottles and a few red ones. You are looking at me and I am looking at you. I am going to tell you about five photographs, and I hardly remember any of them.”
This intimate and revealing autobiographical work explores recollections of memory in Welsh and English through a series of portraits in movement drawn from childhood photos, in which the truths only emerge with hindsight. A knowledge of Welsh is not essential for the understanding and appreciation of this performance. £6/£4
Sat 1 + Sun 2 Sept • 8pm uhhuh dance Albedo uhhuh dance follow last year’s audacious, controversial and critically acclaimed 'The Son the Lover & the Holy Spin' with a new performance that holds up a mirror to the work of Frida Kahlo and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Devised and performed by Jon Luxton, Kylie Ann Smith and Esme Addams with additional direction from Sarah Hall and Andy Marshall. £8/£5
Tue 4 + Wed 5 Sept • 8pm Burst Ode to Morten Harket Join your larger than life, glammed-up hostess and macho, rock star host (both played by Emily Underwood) for a generous cocktail and perhaps a vol-auvont or two. Take a riotous journey through one woman’s 20-year obsession with Morten Harket, the lead singer of ‘80s pop-band a-ha. Comedy, dressing-up, bad tap dancing and conversations with the audience combine in this exploration of gender identity and the first stirrings of sexuality. Expect a return to bright colours, quick costume changes and a DIY aesthetic. Previous Burst shows at Chapter include 2270 Seconds, BPM and Do I Come Here Often. Written and performed by Emily Underwood. Directed by Jodie Allinson. £6/£4
Thu 6 + Fri 7 Sept • 8pm Ivan Coyote Chapter presents two nights of live stories from the wonderful Vancouver-based writer and performer Ivan Coyote. Ivan was born and raised in Whitehorse Yukon and is the son of a welder and the daughter of a government worker. Over the last ten years she has become an audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals across North America and Canada. “Canada. Good old fashioned kitchen table stories. Imagine you are drinking black tea with canned milk, and it is snowing outside. The kitchen smells like homemade soup, and you don’t have to work tomorrow so you can sit up all night talking and smoking cigarettes.” £5/£4
“What makes Coyote’s stories special - her humour, her humanity, her talent for sketching the bizarre in the everyday - soars beyond cliche.” - The Toronto Star
Fri 7 + Sat 8 Sept • 6pm Cyw gan Roger Williams Bachgen, mamgu, a llond basged o wyau. Drama fer (10 muned) am yr ymosodiadau diweddar yn erbyn y gymuned hoyw ym Moscow. Perfformir gan Ryan Chappell. A new short Welsh language monologue inspired by the recent homophobic protests in Moscow. Mynediad am ddim/Free
Sat 8 Sept • 7.30pm Lucy Porter The Good Life Are you in your late twenties or older, and slightly worried that you’re not really a ‘good’ person? Worried that the legacy you’re leaving for future generations amounts to little more than a mountain of debt, a mountain of non-biodegradable rubbish, and a mountain of thoughts and opinions that add nothing to the advancement of the species? Award-winning comedienne Lucy Porter is worried about all these things and plenty more besides. Can a drinking, gambling, allround hedonist ever consider herself to be morally good? A Go Faster Stripe comedy production which will be recorded for release on DVD. £10
Sat 15 Sept • 8pm Peppermintpatti Fake Tan + Emily Breeze + Vile Vile Creatures + Heck Peppermintpatti returns after the summer break with some honest to goodness riot grrl action. Local outfit Heck kick off the night, followed by Manchester’s Vile Vile Creatures, much admired Bristol ‘badland’ rocker Emily Breeze and dance floor fillers Fake Tan. £5/£4 in advance £6/£5 on the door
“Feel the grind, the husk and the rush of one of Bristol’s most unique and impassioned performers.” Venn (on Emily Breeze)
Tue 18 Sept • 8pm Curious (be)longing Camouflaged in cowboy shirts with fancy stitches made to hide broken hearts and deflecting vulnerability with sequins and high heels, this is the award-winning, London-based Curious at their most personal and poignant. Beneath the neon glow of a highway road sign, their yearnings take them across vast desert landscapes in search of fulfilment and fitting in. Curious (Leslie Hill and Helen Paris) specialise in performance, film and video and are known for their edgy, humorous commentary on contemporary culture and politics, work which has been called ‘as smart as it is seductive’. £10/£8/£6
“the quiet power of Leslie Hill and Helen Paris’ performance lies in its low-key directness, its quirky juxtapositions and its understanding of the geography of loneliness and the myth of return.” — The Guardian
Pictured above: the mad but enticing dramatic character creations of Welsh actor Emily Underwood.
I've had the privilege to live in so-called 'World Class Cities' including New York, Chicago, and Miami. One of the things that makes these cities 'World Class' is the presence of accessible, dynamic, cutting edge and evolving Lively Arts and Culture, along with thriving Artists quarters and even Bohemian 'incubator' enclaves.
For anyone inclined to complain about South Wales I would point them first to Chapter Arts Centre. For example, you might consider the talent and affordability of the up-coming one-woman play, 'Ode to Morten Harket'.
I haven't seen 'Ode to Morten Harket' yet, but I intend to, and I will do so because the talent of actress Emily Underwood and director Jodie Allinson deserve a sophisticated and hungry audience.
I'm hungry for exactly this type of cutting edge and entertaining live stage performances, and I'm glad that I don't have to incur the expense and time to travel to London to get it. Cardiff is bursting with arts and culture!
By the way, Emily and Jodie are both products of the incredible arts and drama coming out of the University of Glamorgan Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries, which is about to move in September 2007 from Trefforest to the vicinity of Queen Street in Central Cardiff.
What does this mean for Cardiff in coming years? Expect more joint events between Chapter and Prifysgol Morgannwg, and hold on to your hats as the next 'wave' of creative stuff blasts through South Wales!
You should check it out, but don't delay, seats are limited, and events sell out fast:
Burst: Ode to Morten Harket
Tuesday, 4 September 2007 20:00 Theatre Wednesday, 5 September 2007 20:00 Theatre
Join your larger than life, glammed-up hostess and macho, rock star host (both played by Emily Underwood) for a generous cocktail and perhaps a vol-auvont or two.
Take a riotous journey through one woman’s 20-year obsession with Morten Harket, the lead singer of ‘80s pop-band a-ha. Comedy, dressing-up, bad tap dancing and conversations with the audience combine in this exploration of gender identity and the first stirrings of sexuality. Expect a return to bright colours, quick costume changes and a DIY aesthetic.
Previous Burst shows at Chapter include 2270 Seconds, BPM and Do I Come Here Often.
Written and performed by Emily Underwood.
Directed by Jodie Allinson.
£6/£4
"I’ll be coming for you love O.K." — Morten Harket
