DIM OND GEIRIAU (YDI IAITH) / (A LANGUAGE IS) ONLY WORDS
BayArt, Cardiff Bay
Tues 7-Sat 31 Aug
Curated by Iwan Bala, this new exhibition celebrates traditional Welsh cultural identity and its creativity, in this case stemming from Welsh poetic writing, with work by John Abell, Jonathon Adams, Ivor Davis and Christine Mills to name a few. Artists of several generations are brought together, through ‘custodial aesthetics’ to move the stimulus of the ‘word’ into an artist’s vision, which is subsequently embodied into a physical ‘object’ of art. Language is not only presented as an image, but is the expression of these artist’s views or concerns. These presented objects perpetuate cultural identity from each artist’s perspective – whether this is from use of the text itself, or an engagement with Welsh language and the magnitude of its cultural antiquity.
Bala is known for toying with the term ‘custodial aesthetics’, questioning whether artists have some form of ownership or guardianship over cultural identity. Artists, in this way, can have a role in custodianship of cultural identity, rather than being seen as producers of ‘art for art’s sake’, or art that restates the history of other art. Art has its own specific social function, especially in marginalised cultures – in this case, preserving the political, economic and cultural importance of Wales in a time of political power increasingly relocated in Westminster, as well as the relevance of the Welsh language itself.
One image from the collection includes what appears to be a Welsh hymn, under the title of Tabernacl, paying homage to Y Tabernacl, a Welsh Baptist church that has existed since the 1800s. This exhibition rejects the idea that cultural history is not intertwined in our modern identity, using the exhibition to continuate it. Through the medium of art, Bala reminds us that we have a ‘duty’ to defend the remnants of Welsh culture due to its foundational meaning in modern Welsh identity. EMILY D’SOUZA
Admission: free. Info: 029 2065 0016 / www.bayart.org.uk