Exhibition

Stephen West: Canfod Lefel y Môr / Finding Sea Level

11 Mar 2023 – 13 May 2023

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
11:00 – 17:00
Thursday
11:00 – 17:00
Friday
11:00 – 17:00
Saturday
11:00 – 17:00
Sunday
Closed

Free admission

Save Event: Stephen West: Canfod Lefel y Môr / Finding Sea Level1

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

Mission Gallery

Swansea, United Kingdom

Event map

For this new installation at Mission Gallery in Swansea, Stephen’s large-scale drawings are installed to create a sequence of dramatic images, each a narrative but without telling a story.

About

Stephen West is an artist who has lived and worked in rural mid-Wales for nearly forty years. His work has been shown regularly in major galleries in Wales, in various National Eisteddfod Lle Gelf exhibitions and has been shortlisted for many UK prizes and competitions. He has worked in the mediums of painting, sculpture, print and drawing. For this new installation at Mission Gallery in Swansea, Stephen’s large-scale drawings are installed to create a sequence of dramatic images, each a narrative but without telling a story.

Stephen explains, "for me Swansea is an ‘imagined’ city, somewhere I’ve visited in fact, but which exists for me more in imagination than in memory. And Mission Gallery is more of an idea of possibilities than stone and mortar. It is a space where drawings can spread across the walls and can relate to the architecture and history of this non-denominational space by the seashore.

My work as a Welsh artist has always re-imagined where I am, weaving dreams with observations, so that actual rooms and buildings and nature can become something else in a drawing or actually become drawing.

I’ve realised looking back at the series of drawings that I’ve made since the 2010s that my vision has been ‘landlocked’ in the centre of Wales. This reflects something of the special environment of Dyffryn Banw, its wide valley, its three villages and its encircling hills have guided the atmosphere of my drawings.

My work has recently been exhibited in a series of seaside locations however,  Barmouth, Scarborough, Cardigan, St David’s, Holyhead, and lately the sea has invaded the lower half of the drawings. Figures are standing in the water or by the shore. This is not just a response to showing my work in Swansea, but to the insistent thought that the sea is going to shape our lives more and more as climate change intensifies over the next ten years. 

So this exhibition has its roots in the hyper-rural centre of Wales but looks in imagination towards the contested edge of the sea. At the last time of measuring, our front door in Dyffryn Banw was exactly 600 feet above sea-level. In moving the work to Mission Gallery I am in the process of finding sea level."

-

Artist sydd wedi byw a gweithio yng nghefn gwlad Canolbarth Cymru ers bron i 40 mlynedd yw Stephen West. Mae ei waith wedi cael ei arddangos yn rheolaidd yn orielau mawr Cymru, mewn arddangosfeydd amrywiol yn Lle Celf yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, ac mae wedi ymddangos ar restr fer nifer o wobrau a chystadlaethau yn y DU. Mae wedi gweithio drwy gyfrwng peintio, cerflunio, print a darlunio. Ar gyfer ei osodwaith newydd yn Oriel Mission, Abertawe, bydd ei ddarluniau, ar raddfa fawr, yn cael eu gosod i greu dilyniant o ddelweddau dramatig, pob un a naratifond heb adrodd stori.

Esbonia Stephen, "i fi, dinas ‘ddychmygus’ yw Abertawe, rhywle rydw i wedi ymweld â hi, ond sy'n bodoli’n fwy yn y dychymyg nag yn y cof. Ac mae Oriel Mission yn fwy o syniad o bosibiliadau na charreg a morter. Dyma ofod lle gall darluniau gael eu gwasgaru ar hyd y waliau a lle gellir uniaethu â phensaernïaeth unigryw y gofod anenwadol hwn ar lan y môr.

Mae fy ngwaith fel artist Cymreig wastad wedi ail-ddychmygu lle rydw i, drwy blethu breuddwydion gydag arsylwadau, fel y gall ystafelloedd ac adeiladau a natur droi’n rhywbeth arall mewn darlun neu droi’n ddarlun ynddo’i hun.

O edrych yn ôl ar y gyfres o ddarluniau rydw i wedi’u creu ers y 2010au, rydw i wedi sylweddoli bod fy ngweledigaeth yn ‘dirgaeedig’ yng nghanol Cymru. Adlewyrcha hyn rhywbeth am amgylchedd arbennig Dyffryn Banw, gyda'i ddyffryn llydan, y tri pentref a’r bryniau o’i gwmpas sydd wedi llywio awyrgylch fy narluniau.

Ond yn ddiweddar, mae fy ngweithiau wedi cael eu harddangos mewn cyfres o leoliadau glan môr, Y Bermo, Scarborough, Aberteifi, Tyddewi a Chaergybi, ac yn ddiweddar, mae’r môr wedi treiddio i hanner isaf y darluniau. Mae cymeriadau’n sefyll yn y dŵr neu ar y lan. Ac nid ymateb i arddangos fy ngwaith yn Abertawe yw hynny, ond y syniad taer bod y môr yn mynd i siapio ein bywydau fwyfwy wrth i newid hinsawdd ddwysau yn ystod y deng mlynedd nesaf.

Felly mae gwreiddiau’r arddangosfa hon yng nghefn gwlad canolbarth Cymru, ond o ran dychymyg, mae’n edrych tuag at ymyl dadleuol y môr. Y tro diwethaf i ni fesur, roedd ein drws ffrynt yn Nyffryn Banw union 600 troedfedd uwchlaw lefel y môr. Wrth symud y gwaith i Oriel Mission rydw i yn y broses o ganfod lefel y môr”.

What to expect? Toggle

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Stephen West

Related events

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.