Vivacious, vibrant, and full of life, the latest exhibition by artist, photographer and poet Alix Edwards draws inspiration from women of Welsh myth – including but not limited to the Mabinogi’s Rhiannon, “famed for her beauty”; Gwenllian, who fought in battle even when with child; and, of course, Cerdiwen, whose famous caldron is said to hold inspiration for poets and to have been responsible for the creation of the bard Taliesin, and who is often seen as a goddess of change and transformation.
Many of the tales Edwards looks at involve women refusing to adhere to societal constraints, the most usual being marriage. In this respect, the exhibition follows on thematically from her previous work, which explored the lives and experience of young women who had children outside of marriage and were subsequently sent to Magdalene laundries in Wales. Several of the paintings and pieces from that work are included here, adding a sense of place-based story that’s more rooted in the real rather than the imaginary, and which offers a further, very effective element to the exhibition.
Still, whether it’s a real woman of Wales or an ancient tale depicting one, Edwards’ great strength – palpable here – is her great compassion for others. Although there’s a fresh, colourful energy in the work generally, so too are myriad more disturbing elements, such as the inclusion of shards of broken glass within one painting; or of flowers tacked onto another, their placement – above an illustrative depiction of a Christlike woman, on a blood-red background – indicative, despite pain and prolonged suffering, of hope and new life.
Generally, these paintings are expressive in style, with an almost ‘outsider art’ or naive / childlike quality to them, as if the proverbial inner child was accessed when painting. (Indeed, the Magdalene laundry pieces took Babies as their title, and this is a theme – innocence corrupted, perhaps – which runs through much of Edwards’ recent work.) The colours, too, are elemental, reminding me of the starkness of some Tarot decks; Edwards tells me she chooses colours instinctively whilst meditating upon the subject at hand. Symbolically powerful, speaking to the viewer of primal passions and even, in one blue-hued figure, the Hindu gods, they are, at the soul level, incredibly affecting.
Attend the Myth Of Women exhibition if, and while, you can, and keep an eye out for Goldsmiths-trained Edwards’ work when it appears in other places. Prepare to be uplifted, then saddened, then uplifted again: it’s a very heady mix.
Alix Edwards: Myth Of Women, Cynon Valley Museum, Aberdare
On until Sun 31 Mar. Admission: FREE. Info: here
words and photos MAB JONES
