Funders & Supporters | Cyllidwyr & Cefnogwyr
Zoë Gingell
Curator, Oriel y Bont
​This exhibition was presented as an idea that needed to happen; for illness to be considered as a critical factor in art making and also as a vital example of why art practice is so able to convey aspects of human experience which would otherwise lie unsaid.
In addition to my role as curator of the University of South Wales’ Museum Collection, I have the privilege of programming the changing exhibitions at Oriel y Bont, which is a unique space to bring community and arts practice together within a learning environment.
I am grateful to have been able to provide real support to the project’s curators as part of the mutual learning experience that has enabled this exhibition of important work to be presented. Art has a fundamental role in expanding our understanding of the world, and our humanity. The financial support of the University in sustaining a space where we can see expansive and developed exhibitions such as these, has levered further support, and I am thrilled that the Arts Council of Wales, came on board to co-fund this exhibition.
We are all affected by our status as beings who dwell in a body; and when we become ill, we enter a new dimension of living, which changes us and those we are close to. In my own life, I experienced a period of critical and chronic illness (graves disease) through which inspired a body of artwork, extending my capacity, and balancing my status as physically challenged. It allowed me to process and accommodate a new view of the world where the mental and physical states are so obviously aligned. Making and voicing the experience of thyrotoxicity / essentially taking me to near madness, allowed me to gain agency over an overwhelming conditionality. It did not define me.
The Anatomy of Relationships was conceived and created as a comic book version of my life, and was nearly published by a national newspaper, but at the time of making, I wasn’t ready to put it out there. Inspired by this incredible artistic community brought together by Bella, Caroline and Amanda for this show, I am now able to share some of it, some thirty years later.
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A founder director of Cardiff M.A.D.E Artspace, Zoë Gingell is an artist and curator with a practice which spans across theatre, installation, sound, sculpture and film-making.
Zoe's work has explored themes of grief, maternity and ageing - working at the thresholds of change through the negotiation of bodies and spaces. Her work advocates for the need to discuss the maternal experience of radical changes and transitions in a woman’s body.
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Acknowledgments|Cydnabyddiaethau
Special thanks to / Diolch arbennig i:
Zoë Gingell, Curator, Oriel y Bont
Cerys Thomas, Arts Council of Wales
Heloise Godfrey-Talbot, Creative and Theraputic Arts BA, USW
Tim Nicholls, Llandough Hospital
Mandy Leonard, Art & Psychotherapy MA, USW
Ewan Hilton and Andrew Evans, Platfform
Horatio Clare​
Josh Leeson
Lyndon Jones​​​​​
Tim Kavanagh
Stefan Poole
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The project is co-funded by the Arts Council Wales Create Fund, the University of South Wales and by the extra, unpaid time and goodwill of all the exhibitors, curators and other contributors
Funders / Cyllidwyr:
Ariennir y prosiect ar y cyd gan Gronfa Creu Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, Prifysgol De Cymru a thrwy amser ychwanegol, di-dâl ac ewyllys da yr holl arddangoswyr, curaduron a chyfranwyr eraill.
Zoë Gingell
Curadur, Oriel y Bont
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Cyflwynwyd yr arddangosfa hon fel syniad oedd angen digwydd; i salwch gael ei ystyried fel ffactor hollbwysig wrth wneud celf a hefyd fel enghraifft hollbwysig o pam mae ymarfer celf yn gallu cyfleu agweddau ar brofiad dynol na fyddai fel arall yn cael eu dweud.
Yn ogystal â fy rôl fel curadur Casgliad Amgueddfa Prifysgol De Cymru, mae gennyf y fraint o raglennu’r arddangosfeydd newidiol yn Oriel Y Bont, sy’n ofod unigryw i ddod ag arferion cymunedol a chelfyddydol ynghyd o fewn amgylchedd dysgu.
Rwy’n ddiolchgar fy mod wedi cael rôl yn y prosiect hwn lle gallwn, fel mentor a pheiriannydd llywio, ddarparu cefnogaeth wirioneddol i guraduron y prosiect, gan alluogi’r arddangosfa hon o waith pwysig i gael ei chyflwyno. Mae gan gelfyddyd ran sylfaenol i'w chwarae wrth ehangu ein dealltwriaeth o'r byd, a'n dynoliaeth. Mae cefnogaeth ariannol y Brifysgol i gynnal gofod lle gallwn weld arddangosfeydd eang a datblygedig fel y rhain, wedi denu cefnogaeth bellach, ac rwyf wrth fy modd bod Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru wedi ymuno â’r cwmni i gyd-ariannu’r arddangosfa hon.
Mae ein statws fel bodau sy'n byw mewn corff yn effeithio ar bob un ohonom; a phan fyddwn yn mynd yn sâl, rydym yn mynd i mewn i ddimensiwn newydd o fyw, sy'n ein newid ni a'r rhai yr ydym yn agos atynt. Yn fy mywyd fy hun, profais gyfnod o salwch critigol a chronig (clefyd graves) a ysbrydolodd wneud corff o waith celf a oedd yn ymestyn fy ngallu fel artist ac mae wedi fy helpu i gydbwyso fy statws anhwylus â her gorfforol ac emosiynol. Caniataodd i mi brosesu a darparu ar gyfer golygfa newydd o'r byd lle mae'r cyflyrau meddyliol a chorfforol wedi'u halinio mor amlwg. Roedd gwneud a lleisio’r profiad o thyrowenwyndra / mynd â fi bron yn wallgof yn ei hanfod, yn fy ngalluogi i ennill asiantaeth dros amodoldeb llethol. Nid oedd yn fy niffinio.
Cafodd The Anatomy of Relationships ei lunio a’i greu fel fersiwn llyfr comig o fy mywyd, a bu bron iddo gael ei gyhoeddi gan bapur newydd cenedlaethol, ond ar adeg ei wneud, nid oeddwn yn barod i’w roi allan yno. Wedi’m hysbrydoli gan y gymuned artistig anhygoel hon a ddygwyd ynghyd gan Bella, Caroline a Amanda ar gyfer y sioe hon, rwyf bellach yn gallu rhannu rhywfaint ohoni, rhyw ddeng mlynedd ar hugain yn ddiweddarach.
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Mae Zoë Gingell, un o sylfaenwyr M.A.D.E Artspace Caerdydd, yn artist a churadur sydd ag ymarfer sy'n rhychwantu ar draws y theatr, gosodiadau, sain, cerflunwaith a gwneud ffilmiau. Mae ei gwaith wedi archwilio themâu galar a mamolaeth, gan weithio ar drothwy newid trwy drafod cyrff a gofodau. Mae ei gwaith yn eiriol dros yr angen i drafod profiad y fam o newidiadau radical a thrawsnewidiadau yng nghorff menyw.
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