Exhibitions
Posted on April 25, 2019
Hear about the work of Diffusion 2019, Cardiff's International Photography Festival, from David Drake, Director of the festival and Ffotogallery.
Starting at 29 Castle street, the tour will walk on to Shift (located near Café Nero on Queen Street) and then finish at the Gate.
You’ll hear first-hand from the Director about the following projects and artists:
Book your space for free here.
If you can’t attend the whole event please contact Events and Engagement Coordinator, Catherine McKeag on [email protected].
This event is eligible for students only.
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Posted on April 12, 2019
Join us for 3 days of interactive fun for all the family. The weekend will involve a pop-up exhibition of 2017 exhibition Route to Roots, a celebration of ancestry, connections and differences and will inspire a range of themed activities for all ages.
We have the fantastic Nathan Wyburn creating a portrait of Cardiff legend Ninjah made entirely from earth to link with the concept of roots.
From 11am-3pm each day at Shift, see a full list of the not-to-be-missed activities below:
Thursday 18 April
Nathan welcomes families to Shift from 11am and invites them to start the large scale portrait.
Friday 19 April
Nathan continues on the large scale portrait of Ninjah and Adeola Dewis (Project Director) and Flow Maugran (Costume Maker) host an egungun (ancestor) masquerade workshop, inviting you to make and attach your own designs and words to the ancestor mask.
Saturday 20 April
Adeola and Nathan welcome families for the finale of the weekend which will include a performance to celebrate the creations by families and young people. Performance 2-3pm.
All of the above activities are free. We also offer free refreshments on site. We don’t have toilets within our part of the building, but free toilets and baby change facilities are within the Capitol Arcade. There is a buggy park and the site is fully accessible.
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Posted on April 10, 2019
Join us for the launch of Photography Collective Phrame, and see their inaugural exhibition showing as part of Diffusion: Sound + Vision.
PHRAME is an informal and lively collective of people whose focus is on promoting and supporting the work of emerging female photographers in the South Wales area. This is partly to address the imbalance that currently exists: there is a shortage of opportunities for women to exhibit and publish their photographic work, and the collectives that have formed in Wales which are largely male-dominated. The collective’s aim is to raise the profile of work created by PHRAME members through exhibitions, talks, and mutual support. PHRAME also stages less conventional interventions and provocations to challenge unhelpful stereotyping, to ask important questions about the place and value of women’s practice, and to push the boundaries of photography in terms of process as well as artefact.
PHRAME was co-founded in 2018 by Celia Rose Jackson and Lisa Edgar, with the support of Lydia Pang. The collective is open to everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, class or creed. They offer a warm welcome, shared expertise and energy, and an inclusive atmosphere to all.
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Posted on April 08, 2019
Lord Spittleash has grudgingly opened the gates of his stately home at Insole Court to a cast of hopefuls, chancers, celebrities and spies. Through photography, film, painting, sculpture, sound and live art, Altered Ego explores ideas of who we think we really are and how we present this to the outside world. It explores our alter egos: our self-presentation in the world, our differing identities for different contexts, and those ‘normal’ parts of human behaviour that are often heightened by disability or circumstance.
The project is predicated on the notion that we all create a sense of self and identity, and that we all constantly recreate and evolve our identities in different situations. These alter egos are often not too far away from your own actual personality; giving confidence to explore parts of yourself that you might otherwise feel unable to. They create a psychological space in which you might embody somebody ‘different’ to your everyday self.
Altered Ego seeks to develop a model for addressing issues that are directly rooted in the experience of disability, yet which apply across wider society: the degrees to which we adapt ourselves to fit preconditioned attitudes and perceptions. Through a series of creative experiments, we examine the ways in which we all present ourselves with varying degrees of veracity, accuracy and even mendacity.
Altered Ego features a group of disabled and non-disabled artists, actors, writers and musicians: Sara Christova, William Craig, Paul Leyland, Zosia Krasnowolska, Rachael Smith, Rosie Swan, Kate Woodward and David Sinden. We gave them the tools to create new identities, ranging from… Adam lane, a teen idol popstar gone to ground; to Lord Spittleash, a playboy Baron, spy and aristocrat, and his faithful butler Wallace; Lily-May, a haunted transnational singer; Slim Monroe, a washed up cowhand; Cardamon Jones, a mysterious agent hunting rare animal smugglers; Lord Spittleash’s niece, 80s pop sensation Lulu Goodridge; Blair Maddox, troubled teen and trouble itself; and Banks, Lord Spittleash’s head gardener, convinced that the world will come crashing down…
Altered Ego will be shown as part of the Diffusion 2019 festival programme at Insole Court in Llandaff from 13th to 28th April accompanied by a discussion event organised in conjunction with Disability Arts Cymru, Cardiff School of Art & Design and the Creative Writing Centre at Bath Spa University. It will feature a public exhibition of new image-based and mixed media, standalone and site-specific artworks presenting the Altered Ego identities throughout the Insole Court house and grounds. In the lead up to the exhibition in the main house, an exhibition of works by the Altered Ego artists will also be shown in the The Potting Shed gallery and cafe at Insole Court from 13th to 18th April.
The Altered Ego opening and presentation evening will explore the issues that the project raises in a discussion event with the exhibiting artists and some invited speakers. They will explore the identity creation process and its impact on their creative practise, and reflect on wider issues around disability, identity and creativity.
Altered Ego is funded by The Arts Council of Wales and Diffusion. It is a partnership between Ffotogallery, the Diffusion 2019 international photography festival, MADE gallery, Disability Arts Cymru, Cardiff School of Art & Design, the TRACE Writing Centre at Bath Spa University, Insole Court and the artists.
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Posted on April 08, 2019
Creative Cardiff is bringing Show & Tell to new creative space, SHIFT, on Saturday 13 April 3-4pm, with a focus on the theme of Sound+Vision as part of Cardiff's International Photography Festival, Diffusion.
Throughout the day (from 11am-5pm) Diffusion will be putting the spotlight on the creative community in Cardiff with a makers fayre to give artists, producers, makers and designers a chance to showcase their work, to sell their wares and to network within our thriving creative scene. Come to Shift under Capitol Shopping centre and there'll be exhibitions and talks all day, or drop in for our Show & Tell at 3pm!
Speakers include:
Ffion Wyn Morris, DJ and founder of music collective, Ladies of Rage CDF.
4Pi Productions, creative studio creating immersive experiences.
Matthew Creed, Head of animation at Jammy Custard.
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Posted on March 28, 2019
To coincide with BAFTA Cymru’s An Audience with Sian Grigg on the 26th April 2019, BAFTA presents, for the first time in Wales, a free exhibition of recently commissioned portraits of women leading the way in the film industry, taken from the ongoing series For the Love of Film. The theme of Women Leading the Way was first introduced at the British Academy Cymru Awards in 2018.
Phil Fisk’s carefully staged photographic portraits celebrate the passion and award-winning artistry behind modern cinema. From casting agents to actors, make-up artists to producers, the series shines a light on the filmmaking process and the people that make it happen, both the famous faces in front of the camera and those hidden behind the scenes. Fisk’s style is playful, striking and often surreal – capturing an essence of both the character and career of his subjects.
As a part of the series, BAFTA commissioned Fisk to work with Sian Grigg to create a portrait on location in south Wales, a place of personal significance to Grigg having grown up and still being based here between film projects that take her around the world. As an alumnus of the school, the resulting portrait is being specially unveiled in this exhibition, and is a permanent gift to the Cardiff School of Art and Design Art Collection.
Presented in partnership with Cardiff School of Art and Design, Wales Screen and the Diffusion Festival. With thanks to the Hobson Charity.
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Posted on March 27, 2019
Siân Grigg is a make up designer known for her work on The Revenant, Ex Machina and The Aviator. She received the BAFTA Cymru Sian Phillips Award in 2016.
Siân Grigg attended Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf comprehensive school in Cardiff before enrolling at Cardiff Art College (now Cardiff Metropolitan University(, followed by The London College of Fashion studying make up and hair for film and television.
She had already been introduced to the world of film and television make up as her mother was Head of the Make Up Department at the BBC in Cardiff and a huge influence on her decision to pursue a career as a make up artist and designer.
Siân’s plan had been to join the BBC Make Up Department in London, unfortunately the school shut the year before she graduated from College, at the time she thought this was a disaster of massive proportions. However, with hindsight this turned out to be an amazing opportunity as her first unpaid job, straight out of college, was as trainee make up artist on Howard's End staring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter.
Howard’s End became the first step in what has proven to be a very fortunate career. She has been incredibly lucky working with some amazing make up designers, all of whom have helped teach and enhance her craft, on films such as Orlando, Saving Private Ryan and Titanic.
In recent years Siân has worked as personal make up artist for the likes of Kate Winslet, Tobey Maguire, Kate Hudson and Leonardo Di Caprio and has also designed make up for films such as Ex Machina, Suffragette, Far From The Madding Crowd, Goodbye Christopher Robin and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
During her career Siân has won a BAFTA for her work on The Aviator, was nominated for two Guilds Awards for work on Ex Machina, as well as receiving nominations for an Oscar and BAFTA for The Revenant.
Sian will be in conversation with Olwen Moseley, Dean of Cardiff School of Art and Design.
Hosted in Partnership with Wales Screen, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Ffotogallery for Diffusion Festival.
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Posted on March 26, 2019
Join us for a special Diffusion: Sound+Vision in conversation event where composer John Rea will discuss Atgyfodi, joined by special guests including Huw Talfryn Walters.
As part of this in-conversation event there will be opportunity to view the full Atgyfodi installation.
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Posted on March 26, 2019
A chance to hear more about Michal Iwanowski's work and journey from Wales to Poland, as well as see some clips from the documentary film and share some Polish food. We'll also have a very special guest, Michal's mother, join us on the evening.
In 2008, Michal Iwanowski came across a small graffiti in his neighbourhood in Cardiff, and it spelt ‘Go home Polish. He dwelt on it for a while, unsure whether he really should be going anywhere or whether he was already home. A decade later, after the divisive Brexit referendum, he set off on a 1900 km journey, on foot, between his two homes - Wales and Poland - a British passport in one hand, a Polish one in the other. His goal was to ask people about home, in a journey that would take 105 days to complete.
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Posted on March 25, 2019
Ffotogallery is thrilled to present the European première of Liminality as a part of Diffusion 2019.
Liminality is a live immersive contemporary dance piece developed as part of the UK India Year of Culture and made possible in collaboration with Society for Arts and Technology in Montréal (SAT).
Dancers move from industrial landscapes to coastal environments in Wales and India, highlighting the similarities these two countries share, and their changing relationship.
Fusing contemporary dance, music and innovative 360º filmmaking into a collision of cultures and technology, Liminality is a snapshot into the constant cycle of transition and change.
This project is a co-production between 4Pi Productions and Society of Arts and Technology and is supported by Coreo Cymru, Danceworx, British Council Wales and Wales Arts International.
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Posted on March 14, 2019
Join us for a special evening hosted by Iris Prize at Diffusion 2019 including a screening of Iris and Me followed by a Q&A with Jon Pountney and Dai Shell looking at the Iris Prize Short Film Productions over the past ten years. There will also be two special screenings from Iris in the Community projects, We Leave our Labels at the Door and Y Lolfa (The Lounge).
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Posted on March 07, 2019
Open Call for Artist/Photographer proposals
Introduction
This open call invites artists and photographers who meet the eligibility requirements below to submit proposals for new work to be included in Many Voices, One Nation, a touring exhibition, curated by David Drake, Director of Ffotogallery Wales, and Alice Randone, curator at the National Assembly for Wales.
It is commissioned by the National Assembly for Wales and will form part of the programme of events and activities throughout 2019 to mark the first 20 years of devolution in Wales.
The programme aims to:
- Engage, entertain and inform a variety of audiences;
- Reflect contemporary Welsh life, culture and excellence;
- Help people understand Wales' position in the world;
- Showcase the Senedd as the home of Welsh public life;
- Help people understand the impact of politics on their lives, and understand and value democracy.
Many Voices, One Nation
The exhibition should use photography and lens-based media to explore the hopes and aspirations for the future of Wales.
It should aim to capture the richness and diversity of the geography, culture and society of Wales, and, wherever possible, encourage public participation.
The exhibition will be on tour at various locations across Wales in 2019/20, and will be launched at the Senedd, the centre for democracy and devolution in Wales, in September 2019.
The National Assembly for Wales is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people, makes laws for Wales, agrees Welsh taxes and holds the Welsh Government to account. It is made up of 60 elected Assembly Members, who represent a specific area of Wales as a member of a particular political party or as an independent member. Assembly Members meet every week in the Senedd when the Assembly is in session, to discuss issues of importance to Wales and its people; they pose questions to Welsh Ministers, carry out debates and examine Welsh laws.
Ffotogallery is the national development agency for photography and lens-based media in Wales, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018.
The overall curatorial strategy is to ensure the exhibition content:
- Is of high quality, contemporary and relevant to the themes of the exhibition;
- Reflects the richness and diversity of Wales and its communities by representing people of different ages and backgrounds from different parts of Wales;
- Engages, entertains and informs a variety of audiences reflecting contemporary Welsh life, culture and excellence;
- Is thought provoking and stimulates a dialogue focusing on the hopes and aspirations for Wales over the next 20 years;
- Does not compromise the Assembly's political neutrality and impartiality.
Focus of the Open Call
Eligibility
Up to six photographers/lens-based artists will be commissioned.
Responding to the exhibition themes, the commissioned artists/photographers will create new work around the themes of hopes and aspirations for the future of Wales.
We welcome proposals from artists from Wales, and/or living in Wales who work in photography, video and lens-based media, digital imaging, installation and mixed media. The proposal can be for entirely new work, or a development of work in progress. We also welcome proposals from artists who work with archival and 'found' photography in the production of new work.
Commissions will be awarded in late March and the new work needs to be produced in the period between April 2019 – July 2019. The curators will provide support and advice throughout the production period and around the selection, edit and production of the exhibition.
How much is each commission worth?
Each commissioned artist/photographer will receive a £3,000 artist fee (to include all production costs, taxes and artist's fees), payable in two installments.
Additional print, production and installation costs relating to the exhibition will be met by Ffotogallery.
How to apply for a commission
Artists and photographers are invited to submit proposals electronically to Liz Hewson, Production Coordinator, Ffotogallery, by 12.00 on Monday 18 March.
The submission address is [email protected]
Proposals should be in the form of:
1) Statement of the nature of the work to be produced and its relevance to the exhibition themes, timescale and process, your experience and why you are eligible (maximum 500 words)
2) Examples of previous work (web links, jpegs, pdf)
3) Brief artist/photographer CV (six pages maximum, including full contact details and those for two professional contacts who can provide references)
Image: New Age Travellers, Fenyw © Megan Winstone, 2017
Instagram: @meganwinstonephoto Twitter: @Megan_Winstone
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Posted on March 04, 2019
Join us to hear photographer Paul Cabuts discuss the inspiration and subsequent development of his Chapel project as well as his long-term undertaking to document aspects of contemporary life in the South Wales Valleys. He will also discuss how the chapels near the Workers Gallery have played a significant role in the lives of individuals and the local community.
Following an interval the newly formed South Wales Project, comprised of Dan Wood, Anna Jones, Rebecca Sunflower Thomas, Siôn Marshall-Waters and Jon Pountney, will discuss their documentary photography project in and around South Wales.
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Posted on March 01, 2019
A great opportunity to witness the first fruits of an exciting collaboration between GNFTF and Cardiff-based composer Sam Barnes, who has written music for television series including Hinterland and Hidden, and who is also bass player with local band Boy Azooga.
From its very beginning, GNFTF has been committed to marrying music and movement. What Comes Next? [2015] – which was presented in Chapter at the Cardiff Dance Festival and in the Gwanwyn Festival at the Wales Millennium Centre – included recordings made on home-made instruments. In 2016, we participated in Tim Parkinson's experimental 'anti-opera' Time with People at From Now On music festival. And in 2017, we created Museum Pieces: a suite of three choreographies designed to be performed in museums and galleries – including the National Museum Cardiff and the Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea – that echoed and challenged the art works around them, and that were accompanied by special-commissioned pre-recorded soundtracks by Sam Barnes, as part of our commitment to intergenerational collaboration.
What leg are we on? breaks new ground. Its aim is to develop forms of improvised movement that are accompanied by and that respond to sensitive and stimulating musical soundtracks created live – in an unpredictable free-style dialogue, in a single artistic composition…
What leg are we on? is presented by an experienced group who have come to know, trust and care for each other's physicality and who are able to create funny, moving, demanding, intimate and surprising patterns of choreographic activity. Performers rub shoulders and energies in an eccentric and exuberant combination of solos, duets and freewheeling group movements, gestures and entanglements – encountering, following, supporting, copying, mirroring, modelling, each other. In a style that is laced with effervescent humour and driven by a sense of fun…
The project is funded by an award from the Help Musicians UK Fusion Fund with support from Chapter.
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Posted on March 01, 2019
Katz Mulk will present an episodic performance that will explore the felt languages created through the shifting alliances of sound, dance, voice, and sculpture. Creating rough compositions from fragments of pop music; informal movements; sculptural interruptions and found sounds in a pulsing assemblage of a performance environment that can barely contain all its disparate parts. Practices of gathering and collecting informed by the everyday science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin - especially her short essay 'The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction* - have and will continue to be an ongoing point of contact for the performance. Katz Mulk will be in residency in the week prior to the performance; they will use this time to work with local artists and choreographers on a series of scores that will form part of the performance. In parallel to the performance, Katz Mulk will also use this time to explore deep listening as a way of connecting to others and the shifting dynamics of the performances space.
*'The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction' can be found in Le Guin's collection of essays, Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989).
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Posted on March 01, 2019
“If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time”
Two couples; one liberal, one conservative. One progressive, one traditional. One faithless, one faithful.
Ten years ago, on a freezing snowy day in the USA, Greg Wohead and his then partner spent an afternoon with a traditional Amish couple. Call it a Day is about that unlikely encounter. What unfolds on stage is a strange, surreal, part-improvised reliving of that meeting again, and again and again and again.
Featuring an upicking of Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit Time After Time and interruptions from 1985 Amish-themed thriller Witness (starring Harrison Ford), Call It A Day is a kaleidoscopic examination of the impossibility of truly understanding one another.
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Posted on February 25, 2019
I’ve been collecting 45 rpm vinyl records for many years. The criterion for my collection is that each individual record is culturally specific to Wales. This is an archive of kitsch imagery and popular song, democratic and inclusive of all musical styles. The majority collected because of the details within the record cover photographs and back cover text rather than for the musical content or style. The photographs are rich in historic detail about people and portraiture, landscape and place. Some are surreal and strange. Personal favourites include: Y Pelydrau, windswept and cheerful, stockinged legs with optical illusion skirts posing on Trawsfynydd Lake with the nuclear plant directly behind them. Yr Awr, floral dressed 70s heartbreakers posing on Swansea train station. Y Pedwar Caballero, 4 badass Mexicano farmers from Caernarfon “Their record brings a new sound to the Welsh ‘pop’ scene. Here is an attempt to unite rhythmic ballads with songs to which one can dance”.
These packaged artefacts are cultural relics, archaeological markers of cultural history. Iorwerth Peate, founder of St Fagans, would approve of their redefined status as vernacular folk art. They are preserved time capsules, unselfconscious folk art that reveal an era of yearning to express cultural identity and to celebrate Welshness. Nostalgia, the naïve, innocence, the idiosyncratic, passion and celebration of amateur values are all here. The records are full of living history with personal and group biography, stories, dreams, hopes and fears. They become triggers for memory and emotion. This grouping becomes an historical archive delineating a cultural period between Jac a Will (circa 1958) until the late 70s. The musical themes and lyrics express the cultural values of the nation. A cultural shift takes place from conformist values; the nostalgic and sentimental - celebration of nation, land, family, community and bible, to a bold and confident political, individualistic, self expressive and psychedelic themes as sung by Huw Jones, Dafydd Iwan, Heather Jones, Tebot Piws and Meic Stevens. Music in Wales as evidenced here is expansive in style, form and expression. It is a plural and multicultural activity with Paul Robeson, Iris Williams and Shirley Bassey contributing to the Welsh musical tradition. This installation is about modernism in a specific cultural and marginal context. Telepops Y Cymro is about Wales becoming modern and expressive. Here are the vinyl bones of a nation singing for its survival and with open voice singing itself into existence and self-awareness.
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Posted on February 25, 2019
The fact that 80% of physical abuse reports are made by Muslim women offers compelling evidence that there is not enough education and enlightenment around the Islamic faith within Britain. Furthermore, the ratio of negative to positive representations of Muslims within the British media is 21:1. This is one of the factors leading to an increase in Islamophobia.
This project explores the identity of Muslim women who must stand up for themselves whilst also educating people about Islamophobia. The clothing of each participant shows the wide variety of dress that Muslim women choose to wear. Within the media a generic dress code has been stereotyped to suggest all Muslims dress like Arabs, which of course is not true: Islam is not a culture but a religion.
Ayesha Khan created images of powerful Muslim women and incorporated these with influential Western buildings within Cardiff. She specifically chose buildings that represent the West, in respect of culture, history, education, government and media. These institutions are highlighted to show that, if each one were to promote Islam in a positive way and on a large scale, the impact would be highly visible, as each institution is respected in its own way and has its own audience.
In making her portraits, Khan made good use of natural lighting to create shadows and highlights where she felt these added to her message. The highlights are used to create a holy glow - ‘Noor’ - on each participant’s face, to express their taking a stand against discrimination whilst still being proud of their faith. The shadows represent the darkness within Islamophobic notions and the behaviour that results.
All participants agreed with the statement that Islam has been misinterpreted by many and how there is a larger need to enlighten and educate people about the true message that Islam spreads, this being peace.
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Posted on February 13, 2019
Join us to hear from a range of women working in the audio-visual industry talk about their successes and how they’ve overcome challenges to become leaders in their fields. From making it in the creative tech sector or sound engineering, to working behind the camera, these women have persevered with their chosen career paths and are changing the face of their industries, inspiring many more to follow in their footsteps and make way for a different future.
Speakers include:
Celia Jackson - Phrame Collective
Tuula Alajoki & Johanna Havimäki - Whack ‘n’ Bite
Janire Najera - Diffusion 2019 Artist
Alina Kisina - Diffusion 2019 Artist
Cherie Federico - Aesthetica
Laura Drane - Laura Drane Associates, What Next? Cardiff
Kayeligh Mcleod - Creative Cardiff
Hannah Raybould - BAFTA Cymru
Pria Borg-Marks - Shift
Melin Edomwonyi - Creative Mornings
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Posted on February 13, 2019
On Saturday 13 April, we’re going to be putting the spotlight on the creative community in Cardiff and the surrounding areas to give artists, producers, makers and designers a chance to showcase their work, to sell their wares and to network within our thriving creative scene. Join us at Shift, a new creative space in the city centre under Capitol shopping centre. Details of exhibitors and talks will follow on our website.
At 3pm we'll be hosting Creative Cardiff's Show & Tell, a quarterly event that gives a platform to the exciting range of creative people and projects in the city.
Meet the Makers:
Tracey Paddison / Lorna Cabble - Zines
Julie Cook Photography - Zines & Prints
Fizz Goes Pop - Laser Cut Jewellery & Homeware
Geetlush - Karen Slater - Funky Statement Jewellery
Karen Dawn Curtis - Ceramics
Prints by Nature - Textile Printing
P&D Designs - Textile Jewellery
Single Malt Teapot - Woodcraft
Pixie Porch
Eartha Store - Plants
Old Faithful - Unisex and Men's Natural Products
The Vinyl Shop - Second Hand Vinyl
Danielle Jenkins - Canvas & Art
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Posted on February 13, 2019
Following the project’s success in 2015 and 2017, Ffotogallery will relaunch Ffotomatic for the People for Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography from 1-30 April 2019.
The Ffotomatic project has re-purposed six vending machines and placed them around the city. Each machine sells limited edition, collectable cartons containing miniature artworks and other goodies.
The machines are located in various locations across the city including Wales Millennium Centre, Chapter Arts Centre and the festival’s hub venue in Shift, Queens Street. Can you find them all?
Share your discovers online using #ffotomatic
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Posted on February 13, 2019
Arr. for a Scene is a documentary of two Foley artists while they are producing sounds for one of the most famous film scene in the film history (the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, 1960). This performance is documented on 35 mm film. The original film scene will remain invisible while the viewer sees only the Foley artists creating sound effects for the scene, such as footsteps, shower and door closing. The film examines the way sounds are constructed for the use of cinema and what happens when the structures of a film are dismantled into parts.
2017, 35 mm film transferred to 4K/HD, 5min 18 sec, stereo / 5.1
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Posted on February 11, 2019
Timeshifts
Hide the resistant - make visible the ephemeral. A new principle to represent time in photography. The Timeshifts series uses a typical photographic principle to represent time in a new way. The fact that negative and positive mutually neutralize themselves in colour, brightness and contrast. Unlike other photographic means such as motion blur or sequence Timeshifts only shows the change in time - all other image content neutralizes to 50 % gray. Like two different positions provide spatial vision, overlaying two moments in time shows a space of time.
Before the Content
Before The Content is a series of photographs taken without a camera. But, like photographs, they are snapshots. They show the brief moment of a website building up in which the structure is already visible, but the content is not yet loaded. In a time where we are overwhelmed by messages and content these works give us a relaxing break and open our spirit and perception.
Opening Reception
Friday 5 April, 3 - 4pm
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Posted on February 11, 2019
After winning the Eurovision song contest held in Brighton in 1974, ABBA became a symbol of Sweden across Europe. Young, blonde and reserved they became stars overnight.
As a Swede in the United Kingdom, Brunzell found that traces of the Swedish pop success had been left here, translated into a new situation and culture through the large number of tribute bands dedicated to the legendary pop band.
In this work Lisa Brunzell explores how tribute artists are creating their own interpretation of the original ABBAs, the photographs representing both the original members of the band, and the true personality of the individual performer. Lingering between performance and reality the artists are not fully themselves, but not fully the character - or maybe both at the same time.
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Posted on February 08, 2019
Years ago, a profound sentiment of indignation stroke Martha when finally, there were no industries left in the south-east Valleys. “… it was dreadful to see all those jobs gone. Suddenly, a song comes to my mind and there I was, up the field walking the dogs, and there’s no one up the field, so I started to sing from the top of my voice…” She rushed back home to put everything down in paper.
The song, a “family song”, as she calls it, was a homage to her community. A community that was going through one of the most difficult times of its history. Driven by a need to help their people Martha and her husband George wrote more songs together, and it became a musical. A family story against the backdrop of the social, political and economic situation at the time.
Later, in 2015, an Argentine photographer moves to Abertillery. By chance, he meets Martha. He goes for a cup of tea to her home; the chat leads to the musical she had once written and for different reasons was never staged. He is amused by the songs. From that day on, the idea of sharing Martha’s and George’s songs with more people will never leave him.
Sebastian Bruno presents - Songs from “The Family”, a musical by George and Martha Lowman- a fully immersive experience, that combines installation, photography and virtual reality.
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Posted on February 07, 2019
Contemporary nonconformist chapels in Wales continue to play an important role within their respective communities. Despite a decline in worship over many decades, a significant number of these buildings can still be found in hamlets, villages and towns across Wales.
Chapels with names such as Zion, Nazareth and Tabernacle evoke their biblical referents whilst summoning visions of the great religious revivals in Wales. Other chapels with names such as Harmony, Rock and Gospel are more suggestive of oral traditions that include charismatic preaching and earnest congregational hymn singing. Not least, it is recognised that many nonconformist chapels played a key role in the survival of the Welsh language and were important in the continuity of Welsh cultural life.
Today, some chapels continue their religious ritual and funerary activities, whilst others have been converted for non-religious use. Excellent acoustics make chapels ideal as musical performance venues, recording studios and locations for choral practice. Their uncomplicated architecture also makes them popular for commercial use and conversion into private dwellings.
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Posted on February 07, 2019
Freya Dooley works with the potential and limitations of the live and recorded voice. She is interested in the shared experience of listening and the interruptions, deviations and points at which things might crack. This new, multi-screen audio-visual work takes as its starting point the 1876 short story ‘A Literary Nightmare’ by Mark Twain, in which the protagonist is tormented by a jingle stuck in his head. The only way to relieve himself of it is to pass it on to a friend who, in turn, passes it onto his congregation. The song settles inside of the body it borrows explores how music can affect the mind, infect everyday tasks and taint our experience of the world around us; the way the internal and external can impact and affect each other.
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Posted on February 07, 2019
Our theme for Diffusion 2019 is Sound+Vision. The exhibition in Wales Millennium Centre looks at developments in music recording, production and how it is enjoyed by audiences - from the technology used to record sound for the first time, albums, singles and new forms of distribution which have enabled music to become a part of our daily lives. From fanzines to music videos, tribute bands to virtual reality experiences, come and explore our diverse musical heritage.
Image: Division of Work and Industry, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
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Posted on February 07, 2019
Underpinning the work Intimate Distance are ideas about how we connect and communicate with one another. Language, of course, is essential to this – be it verbal or gestural. Intimate Distance – conceived and constructed as an outdoor installation – combines the ‘language’ of birdsong with the very different discourses and disciplines of traditional wood working skills and new technologies. In one sense, it is a sculptural metaphor for the feelings we experience when the things we seek in this world begin to overstimulate and overwhelm us.
Intimate Distance comprises of beautifully crafted bird houses made from sweet chestnut wood and supported on copper poles. Within each house there is an ultrasonic sensor, a Raspberry Pi computer and a speaker. The ultrasonic sensors measure distance and, as an object get closer, the volume of the birdsong gets incrementally louder.
Likewise, as the viewer approaches the birdhouses in order to investigate them, the volume of the birdsong increases – perhaps, to the point that the viewer feels overwhelmed by the presence of what s/he once found interesting and sought an intimacy with.
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Posted on February 07, 2019
The impact of punk is still alive today. Because of its effect on the artist, she chose to do a photographic project focusing on the singer/songwriter Poly Styrene from British punk band Xray Spex. Since Poly Styrene made such a strong impression on her, Mader wanted to see if she had an influence on other women too. Her interpretation of the punk aesthetic as well as her colouring marked her out as different within the movement.
Representation is such an important thing for most people and as a mixed-race woman who is interested in punk, Poly Styrene showed the arist there were possibilities. That she could pursue a career in photography, where there are not many people who look like her. Interestingly, Styrene and Mader share the same ethnic mix: half British and half Somali.
It is easy to underestimate the impact women in music have. The experience of women in the music industry when compared to the experience of men, means that they have to work harder to be taken seriously. Poly Styrene wanted to be taken seriously and did not allow the fact she was a woman to be held against her, or to be sexualised. She was a trailblazer, a fantastic songwriter and an inspiration for many people.
The locations for the images were chosen because of their links to music. The artist felt it was important to have that context.
She is grateful to the participants of her project for coming forward and getting involved.
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Posted on February 07, 2019
Children of Vision is an ongoing project based on the artist’s long-standing relationship with the Kiev Special School of Art N11 for Children with Impaired Vision and Other Disabilities. This institution is exemplary in its approach to creativity and disability; it allows children to overcome their disabilities and social backgrounds to become independent professionals, including successful artists, musicians, designers, landscape architects and teachers. Using photography, Alina connects to the individuals and what makes them human, capturing the children's gaze, neither focusing on, nor avoiding their unique challenges. While doing this she is also consciously looking beyond the stereotypical representations of Eastern Europe.
At a time of active debate in the wider arts and cultural sector in the UK around privilege versus exclusion, when art is being taken off the curriculum and many face exclusion from the arts and the creative process, the Kiev Special School of Art seeks to empower children through creativity - from music to flower arranging, dance, pottery and painting, children are encouraged to discover their unique interest, which is then developed to grow their confidence, abstract thinking, memory, social skills and other essential tools to overcome challenges.
"... in her series Children of Vision, Alina Kisina now combines a documentary and a fine art approach. Alina, who worked as a volunteer in the school in 2003 and has done much fundraising for it since then, returned there in 2016 and 2017 to undertake an in-depth study of the children and the interaction between children, teachers and supporting staff. Her photographs from the series help us see children who themselves have difficulties seeing and who convey an infectious radiance, comradeship, and warmth. Her photos show the children’s quiet determination in embracing creativity and learning which help them transcend their disabilities... "
- Prof Raoul Eshelman
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Posted on January 24, 2019
Archives are where we deposit and gather our stories, both on a personal and National level; whether on paper, Edison cylinder, shellac, vinyl, tape, film, hard drive, these are all the textures of memory, of history, culture, of belonging and identity.
Atgyfodi introduces the lost voices and recordings from the sound archives of The National Museum of History: St Fagans in the form of an immersive surround-sound installation with found and specially filmed images. These are interwoven complemented by a contemporary musical composition, returning them, and what they represent, into our collective memory. The songs and stories are 'collaged' with original field recordings made in the original locations of the historic buildings of the Museum, also places and people of iconic or symbolic importance such as Tower Colliery's Tyrone O'Sullivan, and farmer Arthur Morris Roberts who witnessed the drowning of Capel Celyn as a young boy.
Atgyfodi brings to light a rich, partly hidden Welsh musical tradition: songs and stories sung and told by real people. The compositional approach was influenced by the textures and sounds of these lives; the traditional melodies, the poetry and musicality of the spoken word guiding the process.
In the composed response, or musical 'frame', these original songs are developed melodically and harmonically allowing space within the composition for re-interpretation and improvisation by contemporary musicians performing on traditional Welsh instruments. A 'circle' of sorts is thus completed, and old traditions re-imagined. Atgyfodi features the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with traditional Crwth, Pibgorn, and fiddle, and whistle performed by Cass Meurig, and Patrick Rimes, and specially filmed and still images by Huw Talfryn Walters. The completed work, including the raw footage and field recordings, will be gifted to the archive of The National Museum of History: St Fagans.
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Posted on January 24, 2019
PHRAME brings together a number of active and emerging female photographers in this, their inaugural show as a collective, curated for Diffusion 2019. While the work on display is richly varied in content, there are some common strategies and modes of approach. A number of the exhibitors share a passion for documenting the world around them, and an interest in both story-telling and gathering the stories of others through engagement and interaction. There is also a preoccupation with the materiality of photography, notably analogue processes including the use of pinhole cameras, paper negatives and cyanotype. In some quarters there is, somewhat paradoxically, a sense of the inadequacy of the medium of photography to express fully the complexities of lived experience or of the world at large. This manifests itself in the use of mixed media and text to create complex, layered work that stretches conventional definitions of photography.
The interactivity of PHRAME’s approaches and practices, both individual and shared, directly references Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics, where the “artist” or facilitator is viewed as a catalyst for human interaction rather than being at the centre of the work. For PHRAME members, the unconventional use of the coffee bar, the disused shop or the converted church as social space is proving to be an inclusive and stimulating environment for the exploration of some key concerns within the photographic discourse.
Artists
Lorna Cabble
Kate Mercer / Dai Howell
Ayesha Khan
Tess Seymour
Faye Lavery-Griffiths
Tracey Paddison
Savanna Dumelow
Faye Chamberlain
Megan Winstone
Sarah Hayton
Molly Caenwyn
Jane Nesbitt
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Posted on January 24, 2019
The visual piano is an instrument which makes it possible to create moving images in a space. It is unique and was conceived and developed by the photographer and light installation artist Kurt Laurenz Theinert in collaboration with the software designers Roland Blach and Philip Rahlenbeck.
Using a MIDI-keyboard it is possible to generate varying graphic patterns which can be digitally projected onto one or more screens. These dynamic and immediate drawings in light are (as with VJ soft-and Hardware) generated by pre-recorded clips, but every moment of the performance is being played and modulated live and in real time via the keyboard and pedals.
Initially Theinert projected his drawings in light straight onto one screen; the expansion of the projection into 360° allows him to expand the visual experience of the audience into three dimensions. The intensified visual experience is astonishing: the defining edges of the darkened space are replaced by big, moving structures of light and the viewer gets immersed in a totally new cosmos of moving lines and fields of colour. The projection onto one screen is strongly reminiscent of constructivist painting and other modernist movements, the 360° projections generate architectural and technical associations. One is reminded of computer generated 3D simulations or laser beams. The symmetrical composition of the projection creates crystalline shapes that remind us of the design principles of Art-Deco or the utopian designs of expressionist architecture. At the same time the psychedelic colours quote the aesthetics of the Sixties.
Form and content are of one here. The “visual piano” performances explore professional contemporary artistic practice through the abstract, ephemeral medium of light, but at the same time they are consciously located in close proximity to the genre of “serious” entertainment.
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Posted on January 24, 2019
The Foley Objects series involves a game of synaesthesia. The work contains images of very disparate objects bearing captions that offer seemingly unconnected definitions. After studying the image, the viewer is able to understand that the words refer to the sound generated by the objects that are portrayed, that they give us a mental reference to an experience which has nothing to do with the image.
Kina has collected objects from various Foley artists and sound designers. This collection of images could be seen as an archive of sounds, as well as a twist between documentation and absurd playfulness.
Opening Reception
Friday 5 April, 3 - 4pm
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Posted on January 24, 2019
The Coal Face is a study of the Welsh coal industry seen through the physiognomies of the workforce. Wales was once a world leader in coal production with over 600 collieries in South Wales alone. Today, all but a few traces of our recent history have been wiped away. The coal dust is gone. The mines demolished. Liquorice rivers run clear and the valleys are green. Scattered throughout the valley towns the workforce are in the shadows; older, wiser and growing infirm. The faces of these men are the key to our industrial past. Colliers from the Rhondda, The Rymney, The Taff and the Ebbw sat for the intense studio sessions required to create the full 3-d portraits, which are accompanied by composer John Rea’s soundscape featuring Jones' recordings of the miners' voices and sounds of the region.
Each 3D image requires the subject to sit motionless while they are scanned (photographed) by high resolution cameras mounted on a rail. The 200 or so images are then fed into photogrammetry software that calculates relative distances and reference points to create a three dimensional “dense cloud” made up of several million of points. A high-density mesh is created and a photographic sheath is laid over the top. The final 3D image is a cloud of measurements that resembles the original images.
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Posted on January 24, 2019
Stevens took the original set of Sound System photographs in 2004. He rose early and walked the streets of Notting Hill before the human mass of the carnival arrived. He had always lived in West London since moving to the capital about 25 years ago, so the streets were well known to him both through experience and through the photographs of Roger Mayne, the post-war photographer whose pictures he loved as a child.
Stevens paid for university by working as a roadie in the West Midlands, and ended up with a love for speaker stacks. The ones you see at the carnival are hand built, beautiful looking systems. By shooting very early Stevens removes the context of the sound system and sees them as sculptural forms in their own right, imposing in the empty streets, alien and sometimes threatening, but always interesting. Modern monoliths, new henges, places of worship. They are the building blocks on which the Carnival is constructed.
The Notting Hill Carnival got its start in 1964, as an expression of the Caribbean carnival tradition of the 19th century. Originally used as the showcase for a local steel drum band, the carnival has grown to include a wide range of Afro-Caribbean music and its related genres, representing various musical traditions and styles from the ’60s up to today.
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Posted on January 24, 2019
Altered Ego is a multi-disciplinary arts project that examines ideas of who we think we really
are and how we present this to the outside world. It explores our alter egos: our notions of self-presentation in the world, differing identities for different contexts, and those ‘normal’ parts of human behaviour that are heightened in disability.
The project is predicated on the notion that we all create a sense of self and identity, and that we constantly recreate and evolve our identities in different situations. Through a series of creative interventions, this project examines the ways in which we all present our different selves with varying degrees of veracity, accuracy and even mendacity.
Altered Ego seeks to develop an experimental model for addressing issues that are directly rooted in the experience of disability, yet which also apply across wider society: the degree to which we adapt ourselves to fit preconditioned attitudes and perceptions; creative ways to empower individuals to tackle exclusion and social isolation.
Altered Ego features Sara Christova, William Craig, Paul Leyland, Zosia Krasnowolska, Rachael Smith, and Rosie Swan. It has enabled this group of disabled and non-disabled artists, actors, writers and musicians to recreate themselves. We are giving them the tools to create new identities, which range from… Adam lane, a teen idol popstar gone underground; to Lord Spittleash, a playboy Baron, spy and aristocrat; to Lily-May, a haunted transnational singer. Using photography, video, sound, painting and drawing, they are documenting the lives of these altered egos as they all come together at Ashbrittle Manor, Lord Spittleash’s family seat in April 2019.
Altered Ego is funded by The Arts Council of Wales, and Diffusion 2019. It is a partnership between Ffotogallery, the Diffusion international photography festival, MADE gallery, Disability Arts Cymru, Cardiff School of Art & design, the TRACE Writing Centre at Bath Spa University, Insole Court and the artists.
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Posted on January 24, 2019
Leading on from their award-winning fulldome film, Liminality, Cardiff based creative collaborators Matt Wright and Janire Najera immerse audiences in the music of Slowly Rolling Camera. Commissioned by Ffotogallery to premiere at Diffusion 2019, Juniper explores how sound and moving image merge within live performance. This unique show sees Slowly Rolling Camera perform their critically acclaimed third album Juniper in its entirety, accompanied by a visual score created by 4Pi. Audiences will be enveloped by the expansive jazz grooves, trip-hop and cinematic soundscapes of Juniper whilst transported to barren and busy environments within the UK, Norway and Finland.
Juniper is the emphatic and uplifting third album from Cardiff based Slowly Rolling Camera. Masterminded by Edition label boss Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts and drummer Elliot Bennett, Juniper fuses expansive jazz grooves with rich cinematic soundscapes marking the beginning of a new era for the group, anchoring new instrumental roots whilst bringing together a dynamic instrumental team of ex-Cinematic Orchestra guitarist Stuart McCallum, bassist Aidan Thorne and Belgian saxophonist Nicolas Kummert.
Friday 5 April, 1 - 2.30pm
Special event for schools and colleges (Age 12+) - contact Catherine McKeag [email protected]
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Posted on January 24, 2019
“In 2008, I came across a small graffiti in my neighbourhood in Cardiff, and it spelt ‘Go home Polish.’ I dwelt on it for a while, unsure whether I really should be going anywhere or whether I already was home.
In 2016, with the Brexit referendum breaking Britain in half, and the rising wave of nationalism sweeping across Europe, the slogan took on an even darker tone, and I felt compelled to respond to it. Literally”.
In April 2018, Iwanowski set off on a 1900 km journey, on foot, between his two homes - Wales and Poland - a British passport in one hand, a Polish one in the other. He drew a straight line on the map, got a pair of good hiking shoes, and walked out of his Cardiff flat, facing east: Wales. England. France. Belgium. Holland. Germany. Czech Republic. Poland. His goal was to ask people about home, in a journey that would take 105 days to complete.
Although Iwanowski anticipated confrontation, polemics, and awkwardness, the antagonism never really came. On the contrary, people responded to the question in a deeply personal way: human to human, rather than citizen to foreigner. Most put their hand on their chest to show him where home was. Many wanted to tag along. Few mentioned their nationality. Only one chased him away.
As the journey progressed, the Go home Polish slogan became irrelevant. However, Iwanowski decided to keep it as a title, and a symbolic axis on which this project is set, a challenge to the language that dehumanises the other. To avoid generalisation and to look at the geopolitical agenda from the perspective of each individual.
And where is home? The answer is elusive and complex, a riddle that transcends time and administration.
This is hiraeth. This is heimet. Home.
Opening Reception
Thursday 4 April, 7pm
Performances by Gwenno and W.H. Dyfodol
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Posted on January 24, 2019
X-Ray Audio is an installation by The Bureau of Lost Culture. It tells a story of cold war culture, bootleg technology, music as resistance and human endeavour. In the Soviet Union during the cold war era, the music people could listen to was ruthlessly controlled by the State. A huge amount of songs, both Western and Russian became banned for ideological reasons but a daring underground community of bootleggers found an extraordinary and risky means to defy the censor by copying and distributing the forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll and Russian music they loved - they built their own recording machines and cut their own records with used x-ray film.
The Bureau of Lost Culture has been researching their story for the last four years, producing a book, an award winning documentary, live events and an internationally touring exhibition. It has received extensive international media and broadcast coverage including major features in the UK, the Russian Federation, Israel, the US and Europe.
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Posted on October 22, 2018
The Nemesis Machine is a large installation representing the complexities of the real time city as an ever shifting and morphing system. It visualises life in the metropolis on the basis of real time data transmitted from a network of sensors, enabling the replica city of electronic components reflects in real time what is happening outside. In appearance, the Nemesis Machine is like Big Brother through the lens of the Internet of Things. It gives visitors a bird's eye view of a cybernetic cityscape, a sonic and visually animated cluster of skyscrapers constructed of silicon and circuit boards.
Small cameras capture images of the city’s visitors so that they become part of the artwork. The installation goes beyond simple single user interaction, by monitoring and surveying behaviours, activities, and changing information in the world around us using networked devices and electronically transmitted information across the internet. This includes observation from a distance by means of custom-made sensors, networked cameras and computers. The artwork reforms this information and data creating what the artist calls ‘parallel realities’.
Through The Nemesis Machine, Stanza is positing a new social space that exists in between the independent online networks where future cities will be merged in real time to create connected up data cities. The landscape will become an observable. The installation poses the question of who owns the data and speculates that virtual borders will create new systems of control.
Opening Reception
Friday 5 April, 3 - 4pm
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