Matins

Name of Gallery: Oriel Myrddin
Number of pieces exhibited: 30
Opening Date: January 2012
‘Field-notes’ is an exhibition commissioned by Oriel Myrddin in Carmarthen, West Wales. It visited Wexford Arts Centre in January 2013, with further works being added, and was also shown at The Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Llantarnam Grange Art Centre, Cwmbran and The National Library of Wales (who now have three of the exhibited works in their collection).
The project is a collaboration with the Welsh language poet Menna Elfyn, (who is also Programme Director of MA Creative Writing at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David).
This body of work (explores the relationship between poetry, drawing and painting developed from the knowledge and experience of working with poets in Wales for many years, and wanting to create an experience that is more embedded in the art-work produced. For example, in ‘Matins/Plygain’ two lines of a poem are incorporated into a drawing and translated, (Welsh to English and Spanish) and transformed in meaning through a process of erasure and addition, that emulates the poet’s own working methods in her notebooks. The exhibited drawings are ‘working drawings’ in that sense, or ‘Field-notes’ made in the process of discovery. Translation, names lost in translation, and histories occluded because of it, are themes touched on in the work, themes that are crucially relevant to minority cultures and languages in the face of globalization. Bala researched into the history of poetry in the Welsh language, including lists of writers, influences for both Elfyn and himself. The ‘Field-notes’ develop from experience of life, and the loss of parents lead Bala to take inspiration from annotated books found in his late father’s bookshelves, as well as the family tree, Welsh hymn compilations, and names of farms remembered from childhood.
A bi-lingual catalogue to accompany the exhibition was produced by Oriel Myrddin, (Welsh and English) containing essays by writer Mike Parker and Ciara Healy, Head of Critical and Contextual studies at The University of Wales Trinity St David’s.
This project is funded by The Arts Council of Wales and Coracle, an European funding initiative for exchange between Ireland and Wales.
The project included interviews, lectures and filmed documentation of the interview between Osi Rhys Osmond and Iwan Bala, and the opening lecture by Prof M. Wynn Thomas can be viewed in their entirety on the Culture Colony website. http://www.culturecolony.com/videos