From our correspondent in...
South Wales
Viva La Valleys
Bob Gelsthorpe,
our south Wales
correspondent,
introduces the
wealth of artist-led
activity in the region
Artist-led activity has always been in the
vanguard of promoting new developments
in artists’ practice and never more so than
in south Wales, where initiatives like g39 and
tactileBOSCH have served as trailblazers.
Now a new wave of artist-led projects is
entering the field.
First stop is in Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent,
where Zosia Krasnowolska and Dafydd Williams have
been running The Kickplate Gallery in a former
hairdressers since 2013. A kickplate is the sheet
of metal installed at the bottom of a wall where
a hairdressing chair would sit, to prevent bored
customers damaging the walls. The name also
suggests that the project is ‘kicking back’
against small-town boredom and the lack of galleries
in the area.
Since its inception the gallery has exhibited work
by no fewer than 44 artists from over 20 countries
and 3 continents and, in a short space of time,
has developed a great reputation for the quality
of its shows. This ambitious programme continues
with the recent exhibition ‘dall’Esterno’ (8 August
– 6 September 2014), a show of seven artists
from what, in western Europe, is perceived to be
‘eastern Europe’.
Profiled
I usually describe myself as an
artist, but I find the term creative
practitioner encompasses a lot more
of what I do.
I was born in Blackpool, but now live in
Cardiff. My work is about generosity
and reciprocation, but that breaks
down into three main strands of
practice-based research: artist-led
activity and its insurgence; studio
practice and its role as a ‘catalytic
chamber’; and the legacy of both
and what that legacy means in social,
emotional, visual and political terms.
What that means to me is an emphasis
on discovery and empathy.
I’m currently working on ‘A Giant,
Whose Shoulders I Stand On’, a
curatorial project with Cardiff
Contemporary that will be the second
in a trilogy of exhibitions based
on ideas of generosity and faith,
as a reciprocation through artists
invested in (but not limited to) South
Wales.
I graduated from Cardiff School of
Art and Design in 2012 and currently
enjoy working at Bit Studios, an
artist-led studio complex in east
Cardiff.
See Bob’s profile on Axisweb >
The Kickplate Gallery. Credit: Zosia Krasnowolska
NOTES FROM WALES | AUTUMN 2014 19