evenin',
Our first exhibition at 76m2 will be "Full Fathom Five", by Celia Jackson. We're excited to be opening a new gallery in Pontypool and we hope we'll see you there when we open on the 11th of February.
“Full
Fathom Five” is a solo exhibition by Celia Jackson, Wales-based photographer
and senior lecturer at the University of South Wales. It is the first in a
series of 9 exhibitions that will run in 76m2 between February and
December 2017 thanks to support that we received from the Arts Council of
Wales, Torfaen Arts Development and Pontypool Town Council.
Considering the personal character of the story behind the
photographs, we would like to present it to you through Celia’s words:
Full Fathom Five
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
(William
Shakespeare, The Tempest, I. 2.
397-403)
My father spent most of his life in, on or near the sea. He was
born in Whitstable, Kent, in 1925 and grew up to the sound of gulls and
shrimp-sellers. Later, when he joined the RAF, he was stationed in the Far East
and brought back small packets of beautiful black-and-white photographs taken
with his Leica camera. These show a mixture of exotic gardens, architecture,
and beach scenes featuring implausibly large, feathery palm trees and brilliant
sunshine.
Later Dad acquired a small dinghy and we would sail this determinedly
up and down the River Avon on summer weekends, tacking every minute or so -
less on a windy day, as the river was so narrow. He would also take sailing
holidays on the North Sea, living on board for several days with new-found
friends; these experiences inspired the poetry and short stories he wrote many
years later.
Towards the end of his life Dad would take me and his two
grandchildren to the Canary Islands every summer, where the white sands and
dazzling turquoise sea were always a source of joy to him. He lost his life in the sea in August 2011,
off La Oliva Beach outside Corralejo, Fuerteventura. As was his habit, he was floating on his
back, looking up into the intense blue of the sky, and his heart simply
stopped.
The images made for Full
Fathom Five represent my first hesitant steps towards making something
positive from the memories of that terrible day. Like the American photographer Barbara Ess, I
am “trying to photograph what cannot be photographed”, and, like her, I use the
simplest of pinhole cameras to capture my way of experiencing the world.
CELIA JACKSON
NOVEMBER 2015
Images featured in the exhibition were
taken with cameras made of a coffee can and a biscuit tin with brass pinholes.
The exhibition will run between the 11th
of February and the 7th of March 2017.
......
Mae “Pum Gwrhyd Llawn” yn
arddangosfa solo gan Celia Jackson, ffotograffydd ac uwch ddarlithydd ym
Mhrifysgol De Cymru. Hon yw'r gyntaf mewn cyfres o 9 arddangosfa a gynhelir
mewn 76m2 rhwng mis Chwefror a mis Rhagfyr 2017 diolch i gefnogaeth
gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, Datblygu Celfyddydau Torfaen a Chyngor Tref
Pont-y-pŵl.
O ystyried cymeriad personol y stori tu ôl
i'r ffotograffau, hoffem ei chyflwyno i chi drwy eiriau Celia:
Pum Gwrhyd Llawn/Full Fathom
Five
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
(William
Shakespeare, The Tempest, I. 2.
397-403)
Treuliodd fy nhad y rhan
fwyaf o'i fywyd ar neu'n agos at y môr. Cafodd ei eni yn Whitstable, Caint, yn
1925 a'i fagu yn sŵn gwylanod a gwerthwyr
berdys. Yn ddiweddarach, pan ymunodd â'r Awyrlu Brenhinol, bu'n gwasanaethu yn
y Dwyrain Pell a daeth â phecynnau bach o ffotograffau hardd du-a-gwyn a
dynnodd gyda'i gamera Leica yn ôl gydag ef. Mae hyn yn dangos cyfuniad o erddi egsotig,
pensaernïaeth a golygfeydd traeth gyda choed palmwydd pluog anhygoel o fawr a
heulwen danbaid.
Yn ddiweddarach cafodd
Dad gwch bychan a byddem yn hwylio hyn yn benderfynol lan a lawr yr Afon Avon
ar benwythnosau yn ystod yr haf, gan dacio bob tua munud - llai ar ddyddiau
gwyntog, gan fod yr afon mor gul. Byddai hefyd yn cymryd gwyliau hwylio ar Fôr
y Gogledd, gan fyw ar long am nifer o ddyddiau gyda'i ffrindiau newydd;
ysbrydolodd y profiadau hyn y farddoniaeth a'r straeon byr a ysgrifennodd flynyddoedd
lawer wedyn.
Tuag at ddiwedd ei fywyd
byddai Dad yn mynd â fi a'i ddau o wyrion i'r Ynysoedd Dedwydd bob haf lle'r
oedd y tywod gwyn a'r môr gwyrddlas disglair bob amser yn ffynhonnell llawenydd
iddo. Bu farw yn y môr ym mis Awst 2011, ger traeth La Olivia yn agos at
Corralejo, Fuerteventura. Yn ôl ei arfer, roedd yn arnofio ar ei gefn, yn
edrych lan ar lesni’r awyr, a pheidiodd ei galon â churo.
Mae'r delweddau a wnaed
ar gyfer Pum Gwrhyd Llawn yn cynrychioli fy nghamau petrus cyntaf tuag
at wneud rhywbeth mwy cadarnhaol o atgofion am y diwrnod ofnadwy hwnnw. Yn yr
un modd â'r ffotograffydd Barbara Ess, rwy'n "ceisio tynnu llun yr hyn na
ellir tynnu ei lun", ac fel hi, rwy'n defnyddio'r camera twll pin symlaf i
gyfleu fy ffordd fi o brofi'r byd.
CELIA JACKSON
TACHWEDD 2015
Tynnwyd y delweddau a ddangosir yn yr arddangosfa
hon gyda chamerâu a wnaed o gan coffi a thin bisgedi gyda thyllau pin pres.
Cynhelir yr arddangosfa rhwng 11 Chwefror
a 7 Mawrth 2017.
