Comments on: Plas Mawr http://blincdigital.com/?p=1098 Wales largest Digital Arts Festival Sun, 27 Oct 2013 20:20:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.2 By: rachel davies http://blincdigital.com/?p=1098#comment-161 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:35:30 +0000 http://blincdigital.com/?p=1098#comment-161 The Arts Council commissions at this years Conwy Feast were a triumph of courage and curation. It is very difficult to combine Art with crowd pleasing projections, but on the whole I think the first attempt by the Creative Team was successful. I understand that the Artists had not seen their work before the event and must have felt a certain amount of trepidation as the projectors sprang to life. The information at the beginning could have been on the walls a little longer, as could the name plates for each piece, but the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition was very good and helped fill in the gaps. The King by Cecilia Westerberg was wonderful in it’s simplicity, Miles Umney’s Stars and Well were also very good. Jessica Lloyd Jones and Ant Dickinsons piece I feel was very experimental, which worked well, and the site-specific piece in the Tower helped to solidify the main concept. I see further exploration here for them both. Wendy Dawson and Tim Pugh must have been transfixed by their large scale piece as alsothe piece called Tides by the Photernative Group. Both using their Conwy roots as inpiration for their work. I think I missed the Perry Hall projection, which was a shame.. not sure what happened there.
There was also the site specific pieces and performances scheduled over the two days. These, although in some very strange locations were also very good. It was great to see Dominic McGill’s This Is Tommorrow. The Castle Tower offering another dimension with regards warfare. Extremely Successful. Sound Sculptures by Pablo Padilla Jargstoff were also very good, especially enjoyed by the children.
But I have to say that the performances by both Rhys Trimble on the Castle and Bedwyr Williams, probably stole the show for me. Bedwyrs film, by his brother Llyr being a very clever piece of footage that sat perfectly with the prose.

its hard to get the balance right. the Welsh Language, The Art Works, The interaction, but the huge crowds initially borrowed from The Conwy Feast is a great way to promote Arts in Wales, and a very successful template in my opinion. Everyone must have worked incredibly hard to pull it off in such a short time. It takes courage to put on an event of this scale, but well done to all involved. The Arts Council of Wales especially for giving the Artists the opportunity to push their boundaries, and indeed the boundaries of Welsh Art. And Also to Cadw, for allowing two very special works to use Plas Mawr as their space.

]]>