Thursday 16 August 2012

Open Studio. Rizwan Mirza, Vida Simon & Miranda Whall. Tuesday August 28th between 3pm - 7pm


Creative Units 1, 2 & 3.

Free all welcome.

Visit the creative units to see the new studio works produced by Rizwan Mirza, Vida Simon & Miranda Whall during their three month residency at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Rizwan Mirza:


“I recently came across three books published over a span of three centuries and often at a unique juncture in our shared history where cultures have crossed paths and often faced insurmountable challenges: The Last Mughal, Travels into Bukhara and The Gathering Storm.
When I arrived at the residency in the middle of a sudden and violent storm I found uprooted trees from nearby forests which had been abandoned downriver on a pebble beach. These pieces of driftwood became my raw material.
By placing what may appear to be disparate ideas together can often take you to an unexpected place. My ideas and work are closely tied to the topography of a place, not only how it is shaped but also exploring the layers of matter contained within it. “

Vida Simon (Canada):


Vida’s practice incorporates drawing, painting, writing, found/hand-crafted objects, sound, and gesture, combined to form site-responsive installations and performances. Drawing live often plays a central role in her performances. Much of her work plays with scale extremes, through projected drawings or situating the body in relation to miniature worlds.
“Working in this wonderful tin pod (light, space, time) has allowed me to develop diverging threads and themes simultaneously – all under the umbrella of Noah’s Flood. I have collected seaweed, experimented with sheep’s wool, made watercolours, drawn storyboards, played with video, and devised new measurement systems and forms of currency.”


Miranda Whall:

Image: Iwan Bala. July 2012

Miranda Whall’s project while artist in residence has developed through the contribution of fourteen local Welsh speaking participants. The participants were invited to talk on ‘hiraeth’ for an audio and video recording either in her studio or in their homes. The recordings present a rich and varied interpretation of the word that is particular and deeply rooted in the Welsh language, heritage and culture but it could be argued that it is a concept that is universal to us all.
Twm Morys will interpret the monologues to form a poem that will be interpreted by a composer for the Aberystwyth Male Voice choir who will perform the a cappella choral arrangement in the autumn of 2013 in a chapel to be decided.
Hiraeth will be part of a series of individual projects under the umbrella project-  the 'Quests'; an interdisciplinary multi screen installation that will be a touring exhibition, the first venue will be the new Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts in Bath, for the opening/launch of the new gallery in Autumn 2014, other venue's in the tour tbc.
So far Whall has made projects in France, Spain and Wales, working with texts vocalised in French, Nigerian and Welsh. She will be developing projects over the coming year while artist in residence in Istanbul and Mexico and while living and working in Europe. All of the projects have and will develop according to location specific responses and the dynamics that occur within local collaboration and participation.
Miranda Whall would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved  in the 'hiraeth' project for their inspiration, enthusiasm, support and generous participation and to invite them to see all fourteen recordings presented at the Open Studios event




Thursday 2 August 2012

from Miranda Whall - Wednesday August 1st 2012

Yesterday Claire, my wonderful intern, trusty support and friend throughout this residency, and I drove out to find Soar y Mynydd, it was every bit as wonderful as I had hoped! it has to be 'the place' for the 'hiraeth' performance; the choir, poem reading, recording etc.








Artists in Residence day out in North Wales..

Thank you Tim for a great day. He drove us to Newtown to Oriel Davies Gallery where we met with the curator Ruth Gooding who was absolutely lovely and very generous, both shows were really good; Bathing Beauties - hundreds of ingenious and beautifully crafted models for beach huts and Gimme Shelter by Antonia Dewhurst. Then onto Wrexham gallery where we met Steffan Jones - Hughes who again was just so welcoming and generous, they were in between shows so nothing to see but we had coffee, chips in paper cones and a good chat. Lastly up to Oriel Mostyn, unfortunately we hadn't got an arranged meeting but luckily and thanks to Riz we met and talked with Gwenno Angharad. After a very cold gin and tonic on the prom we drove home. Tim took us to the magical hidden Castell y Bere and then for a fantastic trout stew/soup at the pub by the lake, aside form midges it was the perfect ending to a really inspiring and enjoyable day.


Steffan Hughes - Jones at Oriel Wrexham and Castell y Bere






















The 'hiraeth' project was progressing wonderfully. Iwan Bala suggested I asked Twm Morys to be the poet, he said YES to my invitation to collaborate immediately - fantastic - I can't read his work because he doesn't have it translated but I'm choosing to trust word of mouth, recommendation, reactions to his name and his reputation, its very exciting.

I also approached the Aberystwyth Male Voice Choir who also said YES, they sang Myfannwy just for me - that was pretty special!






Artists in Residence day out in Cardiff!

Claire and I drove down separately so we could all stay for the Chapter opening, it was well worth it.

Riz, Vida and Tim visited Meg Anthony at Oriel Myrddyn in Camarthen, then we all met at the new G39 gallery space which was fantastic to see, Chris Brown kindly spoke with us for a long time, after a fantastic meal in a Turkish restaurant we went to Tactile Bosch to meet with my brother who was coincidently in town then onto Chapter for the P.V of a brilliant show.


















Once the presentation was out of the way and I'd emptied all my hard drives and desktops I was ready to get started..the idea developed pretty quickly thanks to conversations with Stuart Evans, Anna Evans and Claire Ward. I then spent lots of money on camera and sound equipment, about time - wow what a difference!

I started to invite participants to record their monologues on 'hiraeth', the response was fantastic, almost everyone said YES

An enormous thank you to them all, I've made 15 recordings so far, they are all absolutely beautiful, here are some of them:
















Only 31 days left before I have to leave my lovely 'pod'! I am so happy here I wish it could last forever!

The residency started with a week or so spent consolidating all the pieces of the 'Quests' I had so far for my own benefit and for the cinema presentations on the 14th June. Working late into the night with my footage was wonderful, with a few glasses of wine and darkness I was re - inspired me and re- connected with the project, ready for the next 15 months of 'questing'!


Presentation:














For Miranda's full blog please follow this link:


http://mirandawhall.blogspot.co.uk/