Notes from Wales
Finding your feet is
easier if someone gives
you a hand
Alicia Miller discusses some of the inspiring
programmes that are supporting emerging
artists in Wales
A couple weeks ago, I went to Turner House to see
At Home He’s a Tourist, part of Ffotogallery’s Wish You
Were Here 2014. It’s a series of short exhibitions that
Ffotogallery organises every three years to showcase
emerging talent in lens-based media here in Wales. For
an established gallery to show work by emerging artists
is an important form of support. It is this independent
validation by a respected curator, gallery space or
commissioning organisation that makes the proverbial
art world go round. It’s a critical first step into the
professional world for early career artists.
One of the artists in At Home He’s a Tourist was Freddy
Griffiths. I’ve known Freddy’s work since I saw it at his
MA show in 2012 at Swansea Met. I got to know Freddy
when he was selected for Axisweb’s Out and Beyond
programme, which supported five recent graduates from
MA programmes in Wales in the development of their
practice during that critical year after graduation,
where you come out of the somewhat cloistered academic
community and into the wider contemporary art world.
Out and Beyond paired these artists – also including
Phil Lambert, Shaun James, Ian Wilkins and Megan Wyatt –
with curators from arts organisations across Wales for
one-to-one mentoring and general advice about the art
world and how it works.
Cymraeg >
Freddy worked with David Drake and Helen Warburton
at Ffotogallery. His year after graduation was not an easy
one in terms of practice. He moved to Nottingham and
began working at the Djanogly Art Gallery, but continued
to spend time in Swansea, where he is from. He wasn’t sure
where he was going with his photography and whether he
would continue to work in the medium he’d done his MA in.
Participating in Wish You Were Here gave a clear impetus
– something to work towards – and conversations
with Helen Warburton helped hone his thinking around
the work. What he produced clearly marked a new
direction for Freddy, while still being underpinned by his
sophisticated engagement in questions of representation
in photography.
The work is lucid and thoughtful. Pulling apart a series
of ‘Illustrated Regional Guides to Scotland and Wales’,
he unravels its representations of place and invites us
to contemplate its construction. The photographs of
photographs are a kind of mirror window on the real,
reflecting back on us an image of what we think we see.
Profiled
I began working as
the Axisweb Associate
in Wales in November
2010.
I am Axisweb’s eyes
and ears on the ground
in Wales, talking to
people, writing about
its interesting and
intense artistic
community and giving
Axisweb an offline
presence in the
country.
Read Alicia’s Notes
from Wales >
See Alicia’s profile on
Axisweb >
Supporting the work of early career artists is usually left
to artist collectives and small-scale local spaces and they
do important work to bring attention to unknown artists.
But there is a role for