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Small World Theatre presented ‘Lament’ a brilliant and haunting moving image piece by artist filmmaker Sean Vicary. ‘Lament’ interweaves animation, poetry and music to explore a personal narrative and examine ideas of loss, longing and belonging in the Welsh border landscape.

Credits

by: Sean Vicary
musical coordinator: Ceri Rhys Matthews
technical assistant: Steve Knight
musicians: Ceri Rhys Matthews, Ceri Jones, Christine Cooper
spoken word: Beverley Evans
supported by: The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales, Small World Theatre and Animate Projects

The premiere

An exclusive event on Friday 24 February 2012 included the artist and renowned musicians, Ceri Rhys Matthews, Christine Cooper and Ceri Jones in an innovative performance with live projection and improvised music. At the end of this performance there was an exhilarating discussion chaired by cultural activist Osi Rhys Osmond.

This unique evening was also supported by the Arts Council of Wales 'Night Out' scheme and continued with an intimate acoustic concert where the musicians further developed the themes.

‘Lament’ is running at Oriel Davies: 11 February - 18 April 2012, orieldavies.com.  There is site-specific smart phone content to this exhibition which can be accessed via the QR code appearing in Small World Theatre’s brochure and allows the viewer to experience some of the animated objects in 'Lament' while walking in the Welsh border landscape.

The short film is appearing on Animate Projects' website from 1st March - St David's Day. An essay by Michael Cousins accompanies 'Lament' animateprojects.org

The collaboration

The Arts Council of Wales supported this exciting project in 2011 and since then Eisteddfod winner Sean Vicary has worked with the project partners to create a memorable and exquisite piece of moving image.

Small World Theatre, smallworld.org.uk, was delighted to get involved at the start of this Arts Council of Wales funded project, believing that the artist community in West Wales is strong and making a valuable contribution to Welsh Arts.  As a performing theatre company famous for its giant puppets, exploring animated objects of all scales is a common interest!

Other project partners include Animate Projects, the only UK arts charity dedicated to championing and supporting experimental animation.  Its website animateprojects.org, features ‘Lament’ and other new and historic experimental animation.

The biogs

Sean Vicary

seanvicary.com

Sean is based in west Wales, UK. Having studied painting at Newcastle Polytechnic, he became increasingly seduced by the possibilities of working with moving image. Initially using Super 8 and 16mm Film alongside his paintings he quickly embraced all things digital, acquiring the skills necessary to fully realise the forms he had been striving for in his painting practice. His work has been broadcast in the UK and exhibited worldwide.

Recent exhibitions and screenings include: RE:Animate, Oriel Davies, Newtown, Wales; The Box, Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Outcasting, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; Lightbox, the Model, Sligo, Eire; Hay Festival; SHFT, Continental Gallery, Los Angeles; Views of Earth, Great Wall of Oakland, Califorinia; Flatpack Festival, Birmingham; Stroud Valley Artspace; Darklight Film Festival, Dublin; Nemo Film Festival, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris; San Francisco International Film Festival; Cork International Film Festival, Eire.

Ceri Rhys Matthews

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceri_Rhys_Matthews
yscolan.info
fernhill.info

Flute player, piper and guitarist, Ceri Rhys Matthews is regarded as one of Wales finest and most innovative folk musicians. He has toured worldwide both as a solo performer and with Fernhill, the group he formed in 1996.

Performances on the International stage include the Edinburgh festival, Armagh pipe festival, Hay literature festival and major British Council tours in Vietnam, Libya, the Middle East and Africa. Many of these tours have included a strong collaborative element and these musical encounters have had a big impact on his own music making.

He has written music for television and film including contributing to two BAFTA Cymru award winning film soundtracks, Beautiful Mistake by filmaker Mark Evans and The Comets Tale by animator Gerald Conn.

In 2005 he set up his own record label and recorded an album of traditional Welsh flute music and spoken word called 'Yscolan' celebrating " the fabric of the lives of ordinary people, living and dead, as expressed through their anonymous art." The work was premiered at the Dylan Thomas festival in Swansea the same year.

Ceri Jones

Ceri Jones is a Welsh Canadian whose family hails from Llangrannog, on Cardigan Bay.  He studied jazz performance on trombone in college and has recorded and played with a number of bands of varying genres, his favourites being ska and funk. He’s always been influenced by his cultural roots and began to study in earnest two years ago with Julie Murphy.  He began playing the harp at that time and has studied with Sian James, Terry McDade, Harriet Earis and Bill Taylor. Ceri says of his inheritance,

“I had always felt Welsh even though I grew up in Canada.  After travelling between the two countries several times, I found I was too Canadian to be Welsh but too Welsh to be Canadian.  I think that’s reflected in my music.  I’m part of two worlds but don’t really belong to either.

Christine Cooper

christinecooper.info
Christine uses live loops and voice to gently blow away the thin layer of dust that has settled over old folk songs, drawing the listener into a world of fragile beauty. She brings creativity and respect in equal measures to the music she plays.

Christine is a relational artist, working mainly in the fields of sound and performance, with a passion for community and place-based research. She explores the connections and ecologies all around us, piecing together dusty old fragments of stories with tales of the now and the future to make jigsaw-worlds of fragile beauty. Inspired by the social sculpture of Suzanne Lacy and Joseph Beuys, and the site-specific work of Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz, her work seeks to re-enchant and reconnect us to the world in which we live. Christine believes that art should be made with love; invested with a part of the artist’s soul.

Christine is one of the few students to have graduated with distinction from the MA Arts & Ecology at Dartington College of Arts, before the college sadly ended its life in 2010. She has collaborated with poets, photographers, dancers, puppetry and physical theatre artists, film makers, chefs and others.

In 2003 Christine reached the semi-final of the BBC Young Folk Award, and the following year she won the inaugural Welsh Celtic Fiddle Competition, which she has since won a second time. She has been a member of respected Welsh group Fernhill since 2004, with whom she has toured internationally.