Penny Hallas

Starting a new project in the Dee Valley as artist in residence with Our Picturesque Landscape

Image: canal and river water flanking the ultimate picturesque view from Dinas Bran, with anti-erosion measures

At the beginning of May, I started a research phase, gathering material to develop into a series of large scale drawings in the style of a myriorama. Myrioramas became a popular entertainment and educational tool in the early 1800’s, just as tourism was developing and as ideas of picturesque and sublime were being formed but also challenged by profound changes due to industrial and agricultural revolution. I will draw on this format  to respond imaginatively to a range of sites along the Dee Valley, bringing them into new relationship. By including visual elements that reflect the dilemmas and pressures on the Dee Valley – an area of intense and often conflicting demands – the work will offer new perspectives and awareness of important issues. The interchangeability of panels disrupts linear expectations and allows varying narratives of sense of place – and extends conversation about beauty, value, risk, damage and loss, unexpected impacts of human activity, resilience and reparation.

Image below: 1824 Clake’s Myriorama

Video sequence in which the Divine Comedy is relocated to a brutalist office block in Cardiff city centre.

Alongside a terrific line up of writers and artists, my video can be seen in the 4 page special edition of
Junction Box, celebrating Dante’s 700th anniversary. Editor Lyndon Davies.
https://glasfrynproject.org.uk/w/7086/penny-hallas-elevator/

Image: Elevator, 2nd floor: video duration 5 minutes

tactileBOSCH, Capitol Centre, Queen Street, Cardiff, CF10 2HQ
10 – 30 Sept Wednesday to Saturday afternoons, 1-4pm.

In the midst of environmental, political and public health emergencies, Penny Hallas and Allen Fisher look to the garden, the allotment and the wider landscape for ways of thinking about their own place and the place of others in a world leaning towards disaster. Discomfort and anxiety are a part of it, but so are glimpses of paradise. Through drawing, installation, projection and performance they bring messages from the Garden to the commercial urban centre of Cardiff.

10 Sept 2-5pm – see the show and chat with Penny. 6-8pm – Opening event
25 Sept 2-5pm see the show and chat with Penny. 7-8pm -performance with poetry, projection, music: Allen Fisher, Lyndon Davies and Penny Hallas. Booking required for performance: DM @tactileBOSCH.
Thanks National Lottery and Arts Council of Wales and LACAS

Dr. Frances Woodley_response to Materials from the Garden
Steven Hitchins_response to Materials from the Garden
BLOG
Llangattock Allotments solar powered water system_Pinkerton

Deunyddiau o’r Ardd
Yng nghanol argyfyngau amgylcheddol, gwleidyddol ac iechyd cyhoeddus, mae Penny Hallas ac Allen Fisher yn edrych i’r ardd, y rhandir a’r dirwedd ehangach am ffyrdd o feddwl am eu lle personol a lleoliad pawb arall mewn byd sy’n pwyso tuag at drychineb. Mae anghysur a phryder yn cyfrannu iddo, ond hefyd yw’r cipolwg ar baradwys. Trwy luniadu, gorseddau, taflunio a pherfformiad maent yn dod â negeseuon o’r Ardd i ganolfan drefol fasnachol Caerdydd.

10 – 30 Medi  prynhawniau dydd Mercher i ddydd Sadwrn 1-4pm,
10 Medi 2-5pm – gweler y sioe a sgwrsio gyda Penny. 6-8pm – Digwyddiad agoriadol
25 Medi 2-5pm – gweler y sioe a sgwrsio gyda Penny. 7-8pm – perfformiad gyda barddoniaeth, tafluniad, cerddoriaeth. Allen Fisher, Lyndon Davies a Penny Hallas. Archebu ar gyfer perfformiad: DM @tactileBOSCH
Diolch National Lottery a Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru a LACAS

June 21 – Sept 5 2021
Canolfan y Celfyddydau / Aberystwyth Arts Centre celebrates the value that the arts have played during the pandemic.

Using material gathered in and around the Mynydd Llangattock caving system, Shelter in Place is a meditation on different forms of seclusion and retreat including recent Covid lockdown experiences, extended by personal ill health. Video 20mins.
Book ahead at https://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/oriel-lockdown

Whilst 4 drawings made it out of the country to be shown at the Kohtuus–Yhteys–Tasa-arvo exhibition,
Covid 19 and lockdown prevented planned artist visits and exchanges taking place. Thanks to Arts Council
Wales Stabilisation Fund, I was able to extend the opportunity by making companion pieces to the 4 Aftermath
drawings and connecting with Marja Bonada, (artist and co-curator of the exhibition). Creative digital
collaboration, exploration of the exhibition themes and sharing of mutual responses informed our respective artworks and practices.

For Marja’s work see  @marjabonada and read our blog for more details.

19 July 2020 Live streaming of Shelter in Place on Sunday 6pm as part of the OmniBOSCH programme.
Using material gathered in and around the Mynydd Llangattock caving system, Shelter in Place is a
meditation on different forms of seclusion and retreat including recent Covid lockdown experiences,
extended by personal ill health.

Thanks to Lyndon Davies for the accompanying soundpiece and to tactileBOSCH.

14 Mar 10.00am – 1.00pm. Walk following the route of micro-hydro installation, with Llangattock
Green Valleys as part of Crickhowell Walking Festival 
2.30 – 5.30pm. See videos made in response to micro-hydro, with new soundscape by Lyndon Davies.
Free entry, Scout Hall, Castle Road, Crickhowell NP8 1AP

These events relate to a joint artist residency with Leona Jones for Llangattock Green Valleys’ Hydro in 2018.
Click here and here for more information..

21 Feb 7-9pm Video and projection with performance by Tessa Waite: poetry with John Goodby, Graham Hartill and Lyndon Davies (soundscape)

The MUSE, Glamorgan Street, Brecon LD3 7DW

From the Dark. New work shown at tactileBOSCH‘s programme of exhibitions, events, performances
screenings and participatory workshops through November 2019

Dans la nuit il y a naturellement les sept merveilles
du monde et la grandeur et le tragique et le charme
Robert Desnos

Video and projection based on the underground and dark spaces of the Black Mountains, interconnected with Cardiff counter-cultural night spaces. Video projected onto installations of cats’ eyes gleaned from rural roads linking the Black Mountains with urban centres.

Live performance, Mynydd Llangattock caving system: video Penny Hallas: performance, Tessa Waite.
Installation at tactileBOSCH: Penny Hallas and Tessa Waite with soundscape by Lyndon Davies. For background on the development of From the Dark, click here.

Opening night 1 Nov: Tessa Waite, Lyndon Davies, Scott Thurston, Anthony Mellors, John Goodby,
Wanda O’Connor, Steven Hitchins, Tilla Brading, Rhys Trimble, Nia Davies, Penny Hallas.
For a video of the event click here. Sound compilation Steven Hitchins.

16 Nov 2019: Penny Hallas, Lyndon Davies and Allen Fisher.

Thanks also to Graham Hartill and Ursula Frank

Exhibition and related events exploring major engineering works on the Monmouthsire & Brecon Canal.

During the winter of 2016 /17 the Llangattock stretch of the canal was closed and drained for repair and re-lining, interrupting the flow of water and navigation from the Beacons to the Sea. This exhibition shows these engineering works in progress, in the context of industrial heritage and the interchange of human and natural forces. Painting, drawing, video and found objects from the canal, its feeder streams and the interconnecting network of paths, tramways and roads. For more on this see Canalworks blog and Canalchemy

Response to Canalworks: Allen Fisher_Hallas Towpath 1 initial analysis subsequent consideration

Exhibition: 5 Oct – 11 Nov. Andrew Lamont Gallery, Brecon, LD3 7EW
Poetry and Performance: 4 Nov 5.30 – 6.30 with GhostJam and Canalchemy.

Canal walk: 29 Oct 2-4pm with Kevin Phillips of Canal and River Trust