Tim Davies
1.45pm Saturday May 18 2024
Lecturer Theatre, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
Tim Davies studied at Norwich and Canterbury Schools of Art. He has worked in a range of media over the last 30 years, exhibiting and making work in Wales, the UK and internationally. He has received many awards, including the Mostyn Open prize, the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod and a major Creative Wales Award. He was the first European artist shortlisted for the Artes Mundi Visual Arts Prize and represented Wales in a solo show at the Venice Biennale in 2011.
Flags over Solva 1992, Tim Davies
The core of his work is rooted in working time- and site-specifically, using 2- and 3-dimensional and performative media. His recent practice is exploring the written, spoken and visualised word.
Regarding the Wakelin Award, which he received in 2005, and for which he was a selector in 2015, he says:
I was delighted to receive the Wakelin Award in 2005. The timing couldn’t have been better. During that particular period, I had been working on various ideas about how culturally we reflect upon those killed in conflict (particularly in the twentieth century) and the related commemorations via Remembrance Day services, monuments and statuary.
At the time of my shortlist for the award I had just started collecting images of memorials and manipulating their digitally reprinted surfaces. Using graphite, I scored repeatedly across them vertically, horizontally and diagonally, an act not of irreverence but certainly an expressive veiling in an attempt to re-represent a subject for closer scrutiny (the anthropologist Joy Hendry had essayed such ideas).
The Parisian piece, which was the start of the European Drawings series, was nervous on my studio wall when the selector for that year, Ann Jones, paid a visit. This was selected as well as a wind-shaken video of my installation of Flags over Solva from 1992. Both pieces remain important for me as they informed different strands of my subsequent practice. The Cadet pieces which grew out of European Drawings formed a central element of my Venice exhibition representing Wales in 2011, and much of my following and current text/spoken word pieces, such as Distant Views, Figures and Portraits have their roots in Flags from all those years before. So, receiving the Wakelin Award, seeing my work on the walls and in the collection of the Glynn Vivian Gallery gave me a boost, a confidence to continue, come what may.
I took this as a lesson when I became a selector myself, that the impact of recognition through a timely award or prize on a burgeoning practice can be crucial for encouragement. It’s a kind of critical appreciation that far outweighs a sale of work – as very nice as that is!
So, I took the selector role very seriously and made a shortlist of three emerging talents, all equally worthy candidates, and with the help of the Wakelin family representatives and the Glynn Vivian, came to a decision. A bonus to this process was an introduction of the shortlisted artists to the panel which resulted in invitations to partake in other exhibitions apart from the award, both for the eventual winner and other short-listed artists.
Personally, I’d like to thank the Wakelin family for generously supporting the artists so far awarded but importantly, as a purchase award, for also augmenting the Glynn Vivian collection.
In this talk, Tim will discuss the pieces chosen for the Wakelin Award within the context of his earlier and later work.
1.45pm Dydd Sadwrn Mai 18 2024
Oriel Glynn Vivian
Astudiodd Tim Davies yn Ysgolion Celf Norwich a Chaergaint. Mae wedi gweithio mewn amrywiaeth o gyfryngau dros y 30 mlynedd diwethaf, gan arddangos a gwneud gwaith yng Nghymru, y DU ac yn rhyngwladol. Mae wedi derbyn nifer o wobrau, gan gynnwys gwobr Mostyn Open, y Fedal Aur mewn Celfyddyd Gain yn yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol a phrif Ddyfarniad Cymru Greadigol. Ef oedd yr artist Ewropeaidd cyntaf ar restr fer Gwobr Celfyddydau Gweledol Artes Mundi a chynrychiolodd Gymru mewn sioe unigol yn Biennale Fenis yn 2011.
Mae craidd ei waith wedi’i wreiddio mewn amser gwaith – a safle-benodol, gan ddefnyddio cyfryngau 2- a 3-dimensiwn a pherfformiadol. Ei arfer diweddar yw archwilio’r gair ysgrifenedig, llafar a delweddol.
Ynglŷn â Gwobr Wakelin, a gafodd yn 2005, ac yr oedd yn ddewiswr ar ei chyfer yn 2015, dywed:
Roeddwn wrth fy modd i dderbyn Gwobr Wakelin yn 2005. Ni allai’r amseru fod wedi bod yn well. Yn ystod y cyfnod penodol hwnnw, roeddwn wedi bod yn gweithio ar wahanol syniadau am ba mor ddiwylliannol yr ydym yn myfyrio ar y rhai a laddwyd mewn gwrthdaro (yn enwedig yn yr ugeinfed ganrif) a’r coffau cysylltiedig trwy wasanaethau Sul y Cofio, henebion a cherfluniau.
Ar adeg fy rhestr fer ar gyfer y wobr roeddwn newydd ddechrau casglu delweddau o gofebion a thrin eu harwynebau wedi’u hailargraffu’n ddigidol. Gan ddefnyddio graffit, fe wnes i sgorio dro ar ôl tro ar eu traws yn fertigol, yn llorweddol ac yn groeslinol, gweithred nad oedd yn amharchus ond yn sicr yn orchudd llawn mynegiant mewn ymgais i ail-gynrychioli pwnc i’w archwilio’n agosach (roedd yr anthropolegydd Joy Hendry wedi traethu’r fath syniadau).
Roedd y darn o Baris, sef dechrau’r gyfres European Drawings, yn nerfus ar wal fy stiwdio pan ddaeth detholwr y flwyddyn honno, Ann Jones, ar ymweliad. Dewiswyd hwn yn ogystal â fideo gwynt o fy ngosodiad o Flags over Solfach o 1992. Mae’r ddau ddarn yn parhau i fod yn bwysig i mi gan eu bod wedi llywio gwahanol feysydd o’m hymarfer dilynol. Roedd y darnau Cadetiaid a dyfodd allan o Ddarluniau Ewropeaidd yn elfen ganolog o’m harddangosfa Fenis yn cynrychioli Cymru yn 2011, ac mae llawer o’r testunau/geiriau llafar canlynol a chyfredol, fel Golygfeydd Pell, Ffigurau a Phortreadau â’u gwreiddiau mewn Baneri o bawb. y blynyddoedd o’r blaen. Felly, roedd derbyn Gwobr Wakelin, gweld fy ngwaith ar y waliau ac yng nghasgliad Oriel Glynn Vivian yn hwb i mi, hyder i barhau.
Cymerais hyn fel gwers pan ddeuthum yn ddewiswr fy hun, y gall effaith cydnabyddiaeth trwy wobr neu wobr amserol ar bractis cynyddol fod yn hanfodol ar gyfer anogaeth. Mae’n fath o werthfawrogiad beirniadol sy’n llawer mwy na gwerthu gwaith – mor braf â hynny!
Felly, cymerais rôl y dewiswr o ddifrif a lluniais restr fer o dair dawn sy’n dod i’r amlwg, pob un o’r ymgeiswyr yr un mor deilwng, a chyda chymorth cynrychiolwyr teulu Wakelin a’r Glynn Vivian, daeth i benderfyniad. Bonws i’r broses hon oedd cyflwyno’r artistiaid ar y rhestr fer i’r panel a arweiniodd at wahoddiadau i gymryd rhan mewn arddangosfeydd eraill ar wahân i’r wobr, ar gyfer yr enillydd terfynol ac artistiaid eraill ar y rhestr fer.
Yn bersonol, hoffwn ddiolch i deulu Wakelin am gefnogi’n hael yr artistiaid a ddyfarnwyd hyd yma ond yn bwysig, fel gwobr pryniant, am ychwanegu at gasgliad Glynn Vivian hefyd.
Yn y sgwrs hon, bydd Tim yn trafod y darnau a ddewiswyd ar gyfer Gwobr Wakelin o fewn cyd-destun ei waith cynharach
