There are many galleries in Swansea these days, some quite big and some quite small. Elysium Gallery is one of the small ones but is part of a large artists organisation in the city with close connections to Swansea College of Art and running a substantial collection of artists studios and events.
The exhibition, “Paint to the Teeth Bone”, that has just finished at Elysium featured three emerging artists currently students at the college. I look forward to seeing how each of the artists develop their work but I was particularly taken by Sophie Hardings work on figures.Continue reading→
The most important reason for me to visit Dumfries was to check out Gracefield Arts Centre and the space in which I would have work in an exhibition later in the year. The British Tapestry Group exhibition “Sound and Weave” is now on at the arts centre and runs there until 29th September.
My tapestry is experimentally interactive with light sensors embedded in the weave – the sensors trigger different field recordings layered over a looping background soundscape when they are cast into shadow by, for instance, the viewer’s hand or body.
“Experimental” is the key work here and it proved a challenge to calibrate the sensors to react at their optimum in a space with lighting quite different from my studio. In this instance I am happy for the interactivity of the tapestry to be sensitive to the changing ambient light as much as the gallery lighting and human intervention, but in future venues I will provide my own lighting with a view to a tighter control of the sensors.
INTERCONNECTION – interactive woven tapestry by Alastair Duncan
INTERCONNECTION – interactive woven tapestry by Alastair Duncan
The videos below show both my own tapestry “in action” and the other works in the exhibition. Thanks again to Dawn, the Arts Officer at Gracefield, and all the BTG people involved in setting up the exhibition. It will be my turn when it comes to Swansea in March 2019!
If the videos do not show below in your browser, please click the links below to view them on Vimeo.
Looking back at my walk this week I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Kunsthuis Gallery, it’s garden and cafe. We’ll be back again there in November as well to attend an exhibition opening in which Julie Brunskill has a collection of her ceramic work. The garden will look different by then as it will be late Autumn rather than late Summer. While our focus will be on the exhibition, I may try to get some more photos of the garden to compare to those below and if so, I will make a point of recording the sounds of the garden as well. Sorry there is no soundscape for this weeks walk.
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The gardens at Kunsthuis round which I have been walking this week, have a number of different works of art. It’s up to you what you make of them either from these photos or if you visit the place yourself.
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We have been to a few galleries lately and in one way or another, light played an important part in each one. Light may always be relevant to art but in these exhibits, the artists had used light as an important and “material” part of the work.
These first shots are from an exhibition called “Difference Engine: Accumulator II” at Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen. I wasn’t told not to photograph, so I went ahead (on my phone) and feel justified by advertising both the gallery and the artists. More information on the show can be found on the gallery website.
There were other works in the exhibition as well as these and it was well worth the visit but I particularly enjoyed the use of light in these pieces.
