Penny Hallas

Elysium Gallery, 210 High Street, Swansea SA1 1PE.
Opening event 6 Feb, 7pm. All welcome.
Exhibition continues to 28th March, Weds – Sat 11-6pm

17 Feb 7pm Online artist talk: Tuesday 17th February, 7pm

21 Feb 2pm Gallery talk: Deep Time, with Alan Bowring, Geologist and Fforest Fawr Geopark Development Officer.

In ‘Sighting’, Penny Hallas explores the complex nature of our perception and experience of place. A sighting can be something that simply happens to us, punching through our inattention, dismantling our expectations, or it can be a deliberate act of focusing in. Using but subverting traditional techniques and formats, such as the myriorama, along with home-made, idiosyncratic viewing devices, Penny examines the mechanisms by which we attempt to make sense of the world and to situate ourselves within it. How does a space, in the shape, for instance, of a building, an institution, a landscape, become personal, ‘meaningful’? What do we bring to it and what happens in us when the meanings are usurped or when such places are threatened, damaged or made unavailable? All of which raises social and political questions about power, access and control, and the impact of changing attitudes on social relationships, land and environment but it touches deeply too on our most intimate psychological responses. More ludic than documentary, Penny brings a spirit of play, fantasy, improvisation and mischief to her enquiries, arriving often in the most unexpected places, by means of entirely unexpected paths.

29 June – 20 July New work in Unearthing / Dadorchuddio, a group exhibition with
Marja Bonada, Katie Cyfenw, Susanne Ring, as part of Finland/Wales/Germany exchanges.

Weds – Sat 3 – 7pm Galerie Toolbox, Koloniesraße 120, 13359 Berlin
20 July, 4 – 5pm I’ll be in the gallery with Susanne Ring

Supported by Arts Council Wales

15 June – 6 July Three-week artist residency in Eryri National Park with accompanying exhibition
at Oriel Plas Brondanw and workshop at Oriel Caffi Croesor

Hosted by Noëlle Griffiths at Hafod Art Studio.

10 Feb – 6 May 2024 Gallery 2, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
17 Mar 2-4pm. Artist talk with Alan Bowring, geologist and Geopark Officer.
Celebrating the bicentenary of the myriorama.

200 years ago J.H. Clark and S. Leigh created a game to tap into a new craze sweeping Europe.
Meaning ‘many views’, their Myriorama was a set of 16 illustrated cards that could be rearranged to create
a near-endless variety of cohesive scenes. Long before cinema this was seen as a fine amusement for all
the family. I use but subvert the Myriorama’s idealised picturesque aesthetic, combining and intermingling narratives, deliberately introducing elements of dissonance and misfit as a way of extending conversations
about how we perceive and value the land in a time of environmental crisis.

Gweld y wybodaeth yma yn Gymraeg ar-lein

Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus SY23 3DE
Artist talk in the Round Studio, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Free / am dim

Oct 28 – Oct 29 The Muse, Glamorgan St. Brecon.
Two day collaborative Art Lab to share narratives about the former Mid Wales Hospital.
With Susan Adams and guests. See A Private Land / Tir Diarffordd for full details of the weekend events and
the BLOG to read all about the project

Ymunwch â ni yn ystod ein labordy celf cydweithredol dros 2 ddiwrnod i weld, clywed a rhannu naratif newydd
am yr hen ysbyty a phobl sy’n gysylltiedig ag ef cyn iddo ddiflannu’n llwyr. Edrychwch ar y dolenni am yr holl fanylion.

See the full 14 panel myriorama as part of the Our Picturesque Landscape Project exhibition at
The Dory Gallery 16 Sept – 8 Oct 2023 exhibition open 10am-4pm (closed Mondays)

15 Sept 3-4pm Private View
30 Sept 2–4pm Artists in Conversation. Book via eventbrite
1 Oct 10.30-12.30 Make a goup myriorama: free workshop
https://myriorama.eventbrite.co.uk

The Dory Gallery, Regent St, Llangollen LL20 8HL

Image: 3 of 14 interchangeable panels: crayon, charcoal, graphite, black chalk on paper, each panel 75.5 cms x 218. These 14 panels can be rearranged in nearly a trillion different ways. Video clip and more info -see recent posts on instagram

5-12 Aug /Awst 2023 Y Lle Celf, National Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Boduan, Wales
5 Aug 18.00 Ceremony and launch / Seremoni a Lansiad

@yllecelf
@eisteddfod

Image: detail of one of three drawings in the exhibition / manylyn un o’ fy narluniau yn yr arddangosfa

New work in response to The Carriageworks, Denbigh
6 May 2023 Launch 1-3 pm,
6 May – 25 June (opening days Thurs – Sat 11-4pm)

Lost in Transit brings together different creative responses to the building’s original purpose and context, showcasing drawings, photographs, found objects and sculptural reflections to explore the record of history, permanence, transience and absence.

With Louise Short and Zoe Preece, curated by Alex Boyd Jones
The Carriageworks, 6, Love Lane, Denbigh, LL16 3LU

Susan Adams and I are starting a new project together, thanks to Arts Council Wales and National Lottery support.

After more than a century, the physical remains of the former Mid-Wales Hospital are falling into the final stages of dissolution, but it remains a site of intense and complex emotional resonance for many different communities and groups. Entering imaginatively into the site and the hidden stories it suggests, we will invite the voices of people who have experienced mental health issues there or do so currently in the community. Culminating in co-produced arts events/installations, we will form new narratives in creative ways before both site and memories are lost to us.

Mae Susan Adams a finnau yn dechrau prosiect newydd gyda’n gilydd, wedi’i gynorthwyo gan Gyngor Celfyddau Cymru a’r Loteri Genedlaethol.

Ar ôl dros ganrif, mae olion ffisegol o’r cyn-Ysbyty Canolbarth Cymru yn disgyn i gamau olaf o’i ddiddymiad, ond fe barheir i fod yn safle o berthnasedd emosiynol dwys a chymhleth i lawer o gymunedau a grwpiau gwahanol. Trwy archwilio’r safle mewn ffordd ddychmygus a cheisio darganfod y straeon cudd ymhlyg, byddwn yn gwahodd lleisiau unigolion o fewn y gymuned sydd wedi delio gyda phroblemau iechyd meddwl ac unigolion a phrofir yn bresennol. Byddwn yn cloi gyda digwyddiadau/gosodiadau celfyddydol wedi’u cyd-gynhyrchu, gan llunio chwedlau newydd mewn ffyrdd creadigol cyn i ni golli’r safle a’r atgofion i gyd.

https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/a-private-land-tir-diarffordd/post/52629564/

Connectives are going to Elysium Gallery, Swansea for their exhibition, Memory into Landscape
18 Nov 2022 preview. Exhibition continues until 23 Dec.
Gallery open Weds – Sat 11am – 9pm. 210 High Street, Swansea SA1 1PE

Elysium gallery presents seven artists who investigate the relationship between landscape, history and identity through their personal experiences, perceptions, and narratives: especially how the past imprints itself on the present in our physical environments.

Lucien Anderson / Caroline Bugby / Isabella Campbell / Sara Dudman / Penny Hallas / Connie Hurley / Nikta Mohammed

Selected by Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Dr. Robert Newell