Group Interview 3 - Former Cardiff College of Art students

This week we met with four former students from Cardiff College of Art, as Cardiff School of Art & Design was then known. We were fortunate to be allowed to hold the interview at UWIC's Howard Gardens campus, where they had studied during the late 1960s and 1970s with (amongst others) Tom Hudson and John Gingell. A tour of the building prompted lots of memories from their student days.

 

We would like to thank Prof André Stitt, Debbie Savage and Nicola Brown for their help in arranging for us to use Howard Gardens. We'd also like to thank our interviewees, Colin Ainsworth, Tim Diggles, Suzy Peters and Mike Shaw, for travelling to Cardiff, lending us material from their personal archives, and for their memories and stories.

Interview with Sally Roberts Jones

Rebecca interviewed Sally Roberts Jones this week, about her memories of the Commonwealth Poetry Conference, which took place in Cardiff in 1965 as part of the Commonwealth Festival.  Poets and writers that attended the conference included Clive James and Les Murray of Australia, Alexander Trocchi, Brian Patten, Adrian Henri and George Macbeth. 

The Conference included a happening organised by Tom Hudson at Jackson Hall in Cardiff called 'Assembly Line' - this was possibly the first happening to take place in Wales, and among to participants was the American musician and composer Philip Corner.  We would love to hear from anyone who remembers the poetry conference or took part in 'Assembly Line' - email mail@performance-wales.org

Rebecca and Heike would like to thank Sally Roberts Jones for her sharing her time and memories with us.

Interview with David Briers

David Briers was the Visual Arts Organiser at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff between 1976 and 1984, responsible for programming the galleries.  Rebecca went to interview David this week his interest in performance art, and his time at Chapter. 

Among the artists that David invited to the centre was Nigel Rolfe, who had caused outrage in some areas of the press following his 'Towers' performance at the National Eisteddfod at Wrexham in 1977 (or as the Daily Mail put it, 'The Welsh art of paying an Irishman to demolish bricks with his head').

David invited Nigel Rolfe to do a performance of the 'Towers' piece, and also one called 'Treatment of Individual Parts' (see above and right - copyright Steve Benbow).

If you remember seeing this, or any other performance work in Wales during the 1960s and 1970s we would love to hear from you.

Heike and Rebecca would like to thank David Briers for his help with the project.

Presentation at the ICA's Live Weekends

Heike will be presenting the project at the ICA's Live Weekends this weekend, together with artist Ivor Davies.

'What's Welsh for Performance?' Archiving the history of performance art in Wales 1965-2010 - featuring Ivor Davies in conversation with Heike Roms on Destruction in Art London / Edinburgh / Durham / Bristol / Swansea 1966-1969

22 May 2010 - 2.20-4.45pm, Lower Gallery, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, The Mall - LondonSW1Y 5AH
Admission Free
As part of ICA's LIVE WEEKENDS: Futures and Pasts - curated by Tim Etchells
More information on the event here:
http://www.ica.org.uk/24606/Talks/Live-Weekends-Futures-and-Pasts.html

Interview with Isabel Hitchman

Rebecca interviewed Isabel Hitchman today - Isabel worked at the Arts Council of Wales during the 1970s and was involved in the founding of the Oriel Gallery.  Along with holding regular exhibitions, Oriel was also a book shop and, on occasion, provided a space for performance.  This photo shows a performance by former Cardiff School of Art and Design students Marty St James and Anne Wilson, called 'Perfect Moments'. 

We would like to thank Isabel for her hospitality and her time, and for helping with our research. 

Interview with Wyndham Heycock - Barry Summer School

Heike and Rebecca met Wyndham Heycock, co-director of Barry Summer School with the artist Leslie Moore, from 1962-1973. It was during this period that the school reached its peak, attracting artists and musicians from across the world to teach at Barry, including George Brecht, John Epstein, Roland Miller, Terry Setch, Harry Thubron, Ernest Zobole and jazz musicians including Larry Adler. We'd like to thank Wyndham Heycock, and his wife Sally, for their help with the project.

The photo below is of a group of students listening to Tom Hudson speak at the Summer School around 1965 (click on the photo to enlarge it); if you can identify any of the people in the picture, or you attended any of the art or music courses during the 1960s and early 1970s - please email us at mail@performance-wales.org

Future Presentation - London July 2010

Heike will be presenting a paper based on her oral history work at the annual conference of the Oral History Society:

"Performing an Oral History of Performance Art in Wales" - "[Record] [Create] Oral History in Art, Craft and Design (Oral History Society Annual Conference 2010"
Victoria & Albert Museum London, 2+3 July 2010

Presentations - London April 2010

Heike presented a paper based on her oral history work at a symposium in London this week:

An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales', at the "Oral History/Theatre History: Past - Present - Future" conference, Rose Bruford College London, 17 April 2010.
More information:http://www.str.org.uk/events/other/archive/oralhistory2010.shtml
 

Future Presentation - Theorising Wales Conference, July 2010

Heike and Rebecca will be presenting a paper at the Theorising Wales conference, organised by Swansea University. The conference will be held at Gregynog Hall between 12th and 14th July.

The paper will consider the emergence of Wales and Welshness as concerns in visual art practice in the late 1970s, with particular reference to the practice of performance art & the National Eisteddfod of 1977.

Further details about the conference can be found here: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/CREW/Conferences/TheorisingWales/  

Interviews with Joan Baker and Anne Gingell

Rebecca met with Joan Baker and Anne Gingell today, to hear their memories of Cardiff College of Art from the 1960s and 1970s. 

Joan Baker studied art at Cardiff, before going on to teach at other colleges including Bath.  She returned to Cardiff and taught there for 38 years, working closely with Tom Hudson.

Anne Gingell moved to Cardiff in 1966 when her husband, John, took up a teaching post at the college. John Gingell was very interested in performance, and his ‘Alternative Studies’ course at the college laid the foundations for the establishment of the Third Area, later to become the Space Workshop.

We are still looking for former students from the college. If you took part in performances with John Gingell, or were one of the students experimenting with performance and sound in the early 1960s (or earlier!) then we would love to hear from you.

Thanks to Joan Baker and Anne Gingell for their support for the project.