studioMADE are excited to announce our next exhibition: 'A i os ei di'.
'A i os ei di' is a modest invitation, an invitation to do something together. It is a dialogue, an exchange and an agreement. I will if you will.
The artists here use language, or understanding, to introduce us to new thoughts, new ideas. Radha Patel generates a new lexicon of letters as a future language that can talk about how things could be, how things could change in a world stripped of inequality.
Paul Eastwood takes us deep into Brythonic roots, making old sounds make new words, a sort of reset of Welsh that is timeless, reaching back as well as forward in time.
Barry Anthony Finan uses repetitive letters that mix with thoughts as they come and feelings in large paintings and clay works. The letters become symbols, shapes that let meaning through when they meet to form words we know, but then break apart in unfamiliar sounds.
Mareah Ali’s project, beautifully documents BSL into its component letters. The shapes that too often occur on a page are lifted into gestures and movements. Her practice looks at the world through deafness, making visible something that is often referred to as an invisible disability.
During the exhibition, Dylan Huw and Esyllt Lewis, part of the group mwnwgl, will spend time responding to Gwasg Gee, a publishing firm based in Denbigh that held an important place for Welsh debate. They will look at language, coda’s and hidden histories - the function language can have as a way to communicate something hidden. Language is literally a series of sounds, or symbols - the symbols on the page shape the sounds in our mouths and The exhibition looks at how different languages can offer new ways of seeing. Like the Welsh form of Cynghanedd, two halves of a sentence that harmonise or work together, the word and the meanings.
The rhythm of words in repetition and rehearsal, the structures; letters and shapes that make the words that come together as sentences that tell our stories. They allow us to communicate and express ourselves. Part of identity, of culture, language shapes the way we see the world.
This exhibition is a celebration of the power of language. It is a reminder that it is more than just a tool for communication. It is a way of thinking, a way of feeling, and a way of being.
The exhibition is curated by Anthony Shapland.
The opening will be from 1pm on Saturday 8th July 2023 with an artist and curator talk between 1pm and 3pm. All welcome.
Alongside the exhibition will be a series of workshops, film screenings, and further talks.
Opening Hours Thurs - Sat, 11am - 4pm, 8 July 2023 - 26 August 2023
studioMADE, The Carriageworks, 6 Love Lane, Denbigh, LL16 3LU