Ffion Williams
CYMRAEG DDRWG
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Beth ydy ti'r Experience? 2023
Project description
Text and voice are powerful but can also be drowned out, and when a language is not taught how could it be understood?
My work uses text and the Welsh Language (Cymraeg) to explore identity and protest the colonisation of Wales. Through this, I showcase the language exploring themes of Welshness, protest and hope.
Cymraeg was essentially banned for over 500 years due to English colonisation. I utilise Cymraeg to investigate my relationship with welsh identity. When using welsh I make mistakes, miss mutations and substitute English words to make my point. I call this Cymraeg Ddrwg (bad welsh). Through this, I embrace language as an evolving tool for creation. Layering of text, artwork, metal frames and sound adds complexity and distortion to the work, distancing it from legibility.
Graduate Show Installation; Beth ydy ti'r Experience?
Beth ydy ti'r Experience? 2023
Fy Experience, 2023
Welshness Interviews
Within my practice, I interview people about their relationship to Cymraeg and welsh identity, as well as their experience of protest and hope. Hearing people use and talk about Cymraeg documents that it is still alive and means a lot to so many people. I conducted the interviews at the Abergavenny train station in my home town. A place of movement containing a blend of people with different relations to Wales and Welshness.
This audio contains some of the conversations I had in response to the question; "What's your relationship with the Welsh Language?"
My installations embody the commotion of a train station; creating a space for movement, with light and sound guiding the viewer through the work. Protest is a large part of Wales’ legacy. Through my metal sets and protest banner motifs, I strive to display the power of protest as a tool for change.
I strive to share this history and experience that most aren’t aware of. Suppression of cultures through colonisation has been experienced by different groups, in different ways, to different degrees. My practice is a manifestation of my experience following the consequences of one such instance and aims to grow and share others stories on a wider scale.
Projection and Lighting
'Beth ydy ti'r Experience' Installations
Fragmented Responses
Aderyn
I returned the conversations back to where they came from with this site specific performance in South Wales.
The interviews where I gathered the responses that are written on the wings were carried out not far from this location.
Aderyn, 2022, Performance
Ti'r Experience, 2023
Ffion Williams
CYMRAEG DDRWG
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Related student work
“This kind of work is heavily reliant on context and any gallery or institution would question putting it in a place that seemed to criticise the institution itself.”
futurekind, 2023 (installation view)
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