Aled Rhys Hughes - A Turning Tide

About

Aled Rhys Hughes is a lens-based artist working in south Wales since 1984. His work has been displayed in group shows and individual exhibitions for the past 25 years, culminating in his being awarded the Gold Medal for Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod, held at Swansea, in 2006, and his work is held by several collections. He lectures part-time in photography while continuing to pursue his art. Although each of the photographs in this exhibition was made in Wales, the stories they tell are true of coastlines throughout the world, stories of man and nature in an uneasy coalition, both parties changing and moulding the land at will and to their own purposes. It is often thought that landscape — be it coastal or rural — is a fixed thing but many of these images defy that lie. The coast mingles the nostalgic with the industrial, the beautiful with the mundane; it is a defence against invasion while at the same time enticing invasion of another kind. I hope these images can challenge our expectations of what the seaside is, was and will be.