Bedwyr Williams
21 Sep - 18 Oct 2008
BEDWYR WILLIAMS
"Der Dinghy King"
21.09.-18.10.2008
(Doris Mampe und Dorothea Jendricke)
Press Release
Center is pleased to present the first German exhibition of the Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams.
The following quote of Julia Kristevas is perhaps a possible approximation of Williams' artistic debate: ‘The foreigner comes in when the consciousness of my difference arises, and he disappears when we all acknowledge ourselvesas foreigners, unamenable to bonds and communities’ (Julia Kristeva:Strangers to Ourselves, New York 1991). Bedwyr Williams' work encompasses sculpture, installation and photography; also including performance and stand-up comedy, borne with a certain theatricality. The colourful and satyric work is incumbent upon a recurring critical tenor in its surrounding social environment. His personal and cultural origins serve often as a symbolic foundation, and at the same time apply to his search for that very social and cultural identification. Williams scrutinizes in this way the established forms of conveying historical events, searching in the fusion of fact and fantasy to conquer social norms. Therefore, as at his 2006 show at Store Gallery in London titled Tyranny of the Meek, he gladly lures his audience away from the art space to a local pub.
The Dinghy Kingis a shamanic comic figure that dances and preaches, seeming to have arisen from atype of Cargo Cult; they in the cult of expectation, they hoping for a resurrection of a long-gone and glorious time. He appears, clothed in rubber-dinghy implements and inflatable rubber objects originally created to vitalizeColwyn Bay, atouristic bayon the North coast of Wales.
Bedwyr Williams studied from 1994-1997 in London at the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, subsequently receiving a grant of the Ateliers Arnhem in the Netherlands. He lives in Gwynedd, in the north of Wales. 2008-2009 he completed a project for One Day Sculpturein New Zealand, before that in 2005 he was invited as the Welsh artist to show at the Venice Biennial. Alongside involvement in group exhibitions, for example at the Royal College of Art in London, also CAC in Vilnius and Chapter in Cardiff, Williams regularly exhibits his work at the Store Gallery in London.
"Der Dinghy King"
21.09.-18.10.2008
(Doris Mampe und Dorothea Jendricke)
Press Release
Center is pleased to present the first German exhibition of the Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams.
The following quote of Julia Kristevas is perhaps a possible approximation of Williams' artistic debate: ‘The foreigner comes in when the consciousness of my difference arises, and he disappears when we all acknowledge ourselvesas foreigners, unamenable to bonds and communities’ (Julia Kristeva:Strangers to Ourselves, New York 1991). Bedwyr Williams' work encompasses sculpture, installation and photography; also including performance and stand-up comedy, borne with a certain theatricality. The colourful and satyric work is incumbent upon a recurring critical tenor in its surrounding social environment. His personal and cultural origins serve often as a symbolic foundation, and at the same time apply to his search for that very social and cultural identification. Williams scrutinizes in this way the established forms of conveying historical events, searching in the fusion of fact and fantasy to conquer social norms. Therefore, as at his 2006 show at Store Gallery in London titled Tyranny of the Meek, he gladly lures his audience away from the art space to a local pub.
The Dinghy Kingis a shamanic comic figure that dances and preaches, seeming to have arisen from atype of Cargo Cult; they in the cult of expectation, they hoping for a resurrection of a long-gone and glorious time. He appears, clothed in rubber-dinghy implements and inflatable rubber objects originally created to vitalizeColwyn Bay, atouristic bayon the North coast of Wales.
Bedwyr Williams studied from 1994-1997 in London at the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, subsequently receiving a grant of the Ateliers Arnhem in the Netherlands. He lives in Gwynedd, in the north of Wales. 2008-2009 he completed a project for One Day Sculpturein New Zealand, before that in 2005 he was invited as the Welsh artist to show at the Venice Biennial. Alongside involvement in group exhibitions, for example at the Royal College of Art in London, also CAC in Vilnius and Chapter in Cardiff, Williams regularly exhibits his work at the Store Gallery in London.