Supporting work
Mediating the image
This work is also discussed in Course Contexts.
The following pieces resulted from a productive three-day project involving experimentation of just two images: I used the family photograph (Bachgen Glas) and, on the third day, a monoprint of an X-ray of a person suffering from tuberculosis—a common condition amongst the mining community.
The wood block used for the laser cutting was 29.7x42cm, and pieces were subsequently printed onto card, metal, and coloured sheets of acetate. Two of the cards were prepared with red and blue pastels prior to the printing. The varied use of colour was to produce interesting effects, and the texture resulting from printing onto the orange-coloured acetate is something which I will explore further in later work. Experimentation with the dimension of the image is also something I have continued in later weeks.
I enjoy to work with music, and I have added tracks which either have personal meaning to me or add to the theme.
Music track: #3, by Aphex Twin.
Lithography workshop
By using a metal stencil depicting the furnaces at Port Tablot, I wanted to produce a clean image to evoke the starkness of the current situation.
The metal stencils were worked on throughout the process, and I also used them later during the Relief workshop and for printing onto. I enjoyed the ethereal nature of lithography, and the uneven, broken composition of the stone below lended itself well to the theme of the fractured nature of industry.
Dimensions of stone: 30.4x25cm.
Music Track: Echo Sax No. 4, by Caleb Arrendondo.
Relief workshop
Images printed onto card and marked to recreate the sense of danger and trepidation when descending in the pit head lift. A gold hue was added to the tools with pastel pencil and shading with black pastel pencil. The print was then laid on top of another background screen print of purple from the surface of a hessian coal sack.
There was a real sense of camaraderie amongst the workers who very much relied upon each other. The colour gold is relevant to that which is mentioned by Josef Herman and which I have referred to elsewhere.
Screenprinting workshop
The following pieces were created during the same workshop as the resolved piece Caib a rhaw. This work involved experimentation with different colours, stencils, and coal dust effects applied with fixative.
I like the way in which Andy Warhol uses colours—in particular, blocks of colour—in his images, such as in the Ladies and Gentlemen series. The subjects he photographed were given a dignity and vibrancy which I have tried to do so myself here.
Collage work
The following pertains to a new collage project that I have started in Term 2. I was inspired after returning to visit the mining town of Rhydaman over the Christmas period and speaking with one of the women who had been proactive in supporting families with the organisation of food parcels from the village hall during the miners’ strike of 1984–85. She said it was “like feeding the 5,000!” Often, families would make do on a staple soup, potatoes, and corned beef. This led to me to begin researching the work undertaken by the women during that time, and how vital a role they played in the community—see this relevant article on the BBC, where Sian James reflects on how challenging the period was and how the experience transformed their lives: Miners Strike: Women felt empowered all of a sudden. James later went on to study Welsh and History at Swansea University and became the first female MO for Swansea East from 2005–15.
I took a photograph of a tin of Heinz’s Five Beanz to reference the “5,000” mentioned above, which is of course is a Biblical reference. The chapels and miners’ halls were very much the focal points of the communities in South Wales.
The word ‘glas’ (meaning blue) has breen spray painted onto the material, and the ring pull of the can was placed within the counter of the letter ‘a’. This was then screenprinted onto various surfaces: paper, card, wood, and aluminion. The varied materials were used to determine the which would best produce the desired effect. In the future, I will redo the word ‘glas’ with a hand-cut stencil in various colours.
The dimensions of the paper form is 91x60cm, with the version printed on aluminium being two panels of 91.4x60.96cm. I may later separate the two panels and place further collage materials within, perhaps on a different surface.
I want to then create a larger piece using some of the material discovered during my research, and in particular some of the images contained within the Streic magazine that accompanied the recently held exhibition (of the same name) at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, South Wales.
Recent work
I am currently considering creating a heraldic piece to be placed onto some salvaged metal that I recovered from South Wales. The central figure is of the Twrch Trwyth (meaning ‘wild boar’) from the Mabinogion, and it is the crest for the mining town where I was born—Rhydaman (Ammanford).
The images have been produced using laser cutting and then printing onto various surfaces: paper, card, and aluminium.
Journey to Wales over Christmas, 2024
Photos taken in London over Christmas, 2024
Other work
