Yr Heniaeth yn y Tir - land and language.

An exhibition of work by Veronica Calarco and Alison Craig held in Y Capel, Llangollen, North Wales from September 5th. to October 25th. 2015

"Adre/Homeward", Alison Craig

Veronica Calarco

 

"The artists, Veronica Calarco and Alison Craig, first met through the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham in 2006 and later worked together as co-ordinators of Le Cheile (a printmaking project that was exhibited in Wales, Ireland and Australia). Through working together they have discovered a common interest in the landscape, where the past lies buried but close to the surface, waiting to be discovered. 

Driven by the sense of continuity inherent within the landscape, Alison investigates the persistence of the human spirit across time, using the things we can see to hint at what lies underneath, whilst Veronica investigates her connection with the land and her search for what is lost when a language and culture is lost.

Both artists have moved to Wales and are learning Welsh:  in doing so, they are studying not only a language but also a culture and history that are becoming part of their own story. This is informing their connection with both the land they are living in and the lands they have left behind.

The work in this exhibition responds to Aros Mae, a poem by John Ceiriog Hughes to the preceding generations who lived in a different land and left their mark there; listening to the languages which remain in the land even after the people who spoke them have moved on.

For this exhibition they have taken  words developed from the sentiment of the poem and used them as a starting point for individual paintings reflecting their feelings about the land, the language and the culture from which they come and the land, language and culture in which they are now living."