#44: Offline Journal Newsletter : 16 Nov '22
Photography events & exhibitions around Wales!
Hello again
I’ve had a busy November but did manage to get out to a couple of exhibition openings armed with a small audio recorder - the results can be listened to below!
#009 ‘COMMUNITY’ - the latest issue of Offline Journal has been well received and is now down to the last dozen copies remaining. Full info on the contents of the packed 40 page issue is available on www.offline.wales
Martin Parr at Ffoto Newport
Ffoto Newport celebrates its first birthday later this month with an exhibition of photographs by Martin Parr titled ‘SIGNS OF THE TIMES’.
The social documentary work is drawn from Parr’s book ‘Signs of the Times: A Portrait of the Nation’s Tastes’, published in 1999 by Cornerhouse, and a BBC television series from that time exploring the many individual tastes of British home decoration, materialism and consumerism.
As described on the Ffoto Newport website…
“The project is based on the BBC television series of the same name, Signs of the Times is a vintage – and hilarious – look at personal early 90s taste in the British home, exploring the extraordinary range of emotions that lie behind our household decor”.
The exhibition will have an opening event 5 - 8pm on Saturday 26 November and run until 31 January 2023. All welcome.
Be sure to check the Ffoto Newport website for normal opening times before visiting.
Y CAE / THE FIELD
Y CAE / THE FIELD is an ongoing series of exhibitions curated by Valley Ffocws art collective in collaboration with the Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership (YRP) on the subject of the former Lady Windsor Colliery site, a few miles north of Pontypridd. Each exhibitor will take over the six presentation boards located along the the Windsor Trail for two months, host a shared community event and create a publication available from the YRP office.
The common focus is the site of the Lady Windsor Colliery and its future. Each contributor brings their own expertise, including photography, industrial archaeology, social history, illustration & storytelling, fine art, ecology and surveying. The aim is to both inform and stimulate given the backdrop of the site’s industrial life between 1886 and 1988 and provoke fresh ideas in the context of today’s challenges; in particular, climate emergency.
Dr Steven Murray has been recording the Lady Windsor Colliery site for 14 years and finds a mosaic of biodiversity, an accidental haven for wildlife at a small scale. His macro photographic landscapes across this tapestry of habitats are displayed much enlarged, but the originals can still be spotted by the naked eye. Steven works as a Science Teacher in Beddau.
Steven discusses his work and images for this project in the audio clip below.
“Valley Ffocws is a multi-disciplined, inclusive creative collective making innovative work in and on the Valleys. Outcomes can take any number of forms, but activism and change lie at the heart of its endeavour. This shifting collective invites creativity beyond the traditional arts”. – Julie Cook, founder
For more information, you can contact Julie via: juliecook1@icloud.com
FFOCWS at Ffotogallery
Listen to my informal chat below with Ed Worthington as we looked at prints from his Cardiff project ‘It’s alright around here, isn’t it’ on the walls of the Ffotogallery FFOCWS opening exhibition.
As covered in an Offline Journal issue #009 article, a group of students studying on the Documentary Photography course in Cardiff came together to collaborate on a ‘Police Kicking Kids’ collective zine during Covid lockdowns, staged their final DocPhot degree show this summer and are currently planning more of their own publications under the 103 banner. You can listen to my informal catch-up discussion below with 103 Books members Alice Durham, Ross Gardner and Nate Davies just an hour before the FFOCWS opening event at Ffotogallery where Alice and Ross joined other participants in the new joint exhibition and mentoring initiative.
Ffotogallery are hosting three afternoon Ffocws Artist Workshops from 2 - 4pm Tuesday 22 - Thursday 24 November. These will be delivered online and anyone can select and book a free place by visiting the website link below.
Intriguingly, as I write this, the terms Visual Artist and Visual Arts Industry populate the web page promoting these online sessions, with no reference to photographer or photography? To me, that’s a tad strange and concerning in equal measure when communicating a professional development programme aimed at those in the early stages of a career using photography as the primary medium in their practice and future working career; whether they choose to identify as Artist, Photographic Artist or Photographer. Over these past 44 years, what established and has kept Ffotogallery distinctive from the many other Visual Arts organisations and galleries across Wales, and further afield, is photography.
www.ffotogallery.org/programme/ffocws-artist-workshops
City Stories - show #2
After its first month-long exhibition at Found Gallery in Brecon April/May of this year, Pete Davis’ impressive City Stories body of street documentary work had an official opening in the Senedd Futures Gallery, upstairs in the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay a month back on Tuesday 18 October.
I went along to the opening with photographer and EYE Festival Director Glenn Edwards to see the exhibition in its home town and hear opening speeches by Elin Jones, Presiding Officer at the Senedd who sponsored the show, and Pete Davis describing the project.
Glenn and I had a short chat with Pete afterwards and asked a question passed to me by photographer Nick Treharne regarding photographing children on the street in modern times. Have a listen to Pete’s response in the audio clip below.
The City Stories exhibition runs until 8 December 2022.
Photography Exhibitions & Events
Here’s a list of exhibitions & events I’m aware of in, and bordering, Wales.
If you’re aware of any others planned or coming up, please leave a comment or direct the photographer or gallery curator my way via: offline.journal@gmail.com
A WHISPER STIRS THE SILENCE - PHOTOGRAPHS IN SNOWDONIA
John Clow
12 June - 21 December 2022
Ffotogaleri y Gofeb, Machynlleth
www.ffotogaleriygofeb.co.uk
CITY STORIES
Pete Davis: Cardiff 1969 - 1977
1 October - 8 December 2022
Futures Gallery, Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay
www.senedd.wales/visit/exhibitions
Y CAE / THE FIELD (It’s a Small World – Former Lady Windsor Colliery)
Dr Steven Murray
1 October - 1 December 2022
Lady Windsor Trail to Butchers Pool, Ynysybwl CF37 3EY
www.ffoton.wales (Original project announcement & update)
THIS GOLDEN MILE
Kavi Pujara
6 October - 18 December 2022
Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol
www.martinparrfoundation.org
WE’RE NOT JUST PASSING THROUGH
Glenn Edwards (with guest work by Vanley Burke)
6 October 2022 - 8 January 2023
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk
35 SUMMERS
Mark McNulty
15 October - 21 January 2022
Oriel Colwyn, Colwyn Bay
www.orielcolwyn.org
LEST WE FORGET
Barbara McLoughlin
16 October - 19 November 2022
CWTCH Community & Arts Centre, Newport
www.cwtsh.org
ONLY JAPAN
Richard Greatrex
18 October - 18 November 2022
Found Gallery, Brecon
www.foundgallery.co.uk
PWER POBL / PEOPLE POWER
Group exhibition, tour and workshops on the work of female & non-binary photographers that, from a feminist perspective, has documented the act of protest and shaped its representation
10 November - 22 December 2022
Workers Gallery, Ynyshir, Rhondda Valley
www.workersgallery.co.uk
FFOCWS
Various photographers
4 November - 17 December 2022
Ffotogallery, Cardiff
www.ffotogallery.org
SOUTH WALES TODAY
Nat Simpson
5 - 20 November 2022
Ffoto Newport, Newport
www.ffotonewport.com
THE RED ROOM CARDIFF (as featured in the latest Offline Journal #009)
*Opening event* with talks & photography exhibition
11am - 5pm Saturday 12 November 2022
The Red Room, Cardiff
www.theredroomcardiff.co.uk
MEMORY INTO LANDSCAPE
Various Artists (including Isabella Campbell, Offline Journal issue #003)
18 November - 23 December 2022
Elysium Gallery, Swansea
www.artrabbit.com
THE FACULTY DIVINE
Fergus Thomas (with poetry by 19th century Welsh poet William "Islwyn" Thomas)
18 - 22 November 2022 (Church opening event 6 - 8pm on 18 November)
St Tudor's Church, Mynyddislwyn, Blackwood, NP12 2BG
CULT VR, Cardiff
Opening Event free tickets / www.fergusthomas.com
Y WAL GOCH - Artist Talk
Anthony Jones
19 November 2022
Ffotogallery, Cardiff
www.ffotogallery.org
CAERNARFON (as featured in the latest Offline Journal #009)
Joan West
23 November - 30 January 2023
Galeri Café Bar, Caernarfon
www.joanwest.com
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Martin Parr
26 November - 31 January 2023 (opening event 5 - 8pm 26 November)
Ffoto Newport, Newport
www.ffotonewport.com
Ped4ir Môn Collective
Group show
14 January - 4 March 2023
The Willow Gallery, Oswestry
www.willowgalleryoswestry.org
Glad you like them Mark - they don't always work in busy settings!
These mini audio interviews are great!