Wales Arts Review Weekly Update (06/05/2023)
Climate Crisis, National Identity, Prince Charles, and the photography of Mohamed Hassan in the this week's free round-up.
The Cartography of Home
Available to subscribers through Wales Arts Review Plus from tomorrow, in the latest of our collaborations between Wales Arts Review and The Western Mail, Ellie Evelyn Orrell reflects on the call of home in the works of Welsh-Egyptian photographer, Mohamed Hassan, mapping Hasan's depictions of Wales against her own experience of belonging and home.
Along a winding road, bordered by sloping fields and crooked stock fences at either side, I’m suddenly home. I’d been scrolling through a sleepless night in London when I first encountered the work of Welsh-Egyptian artist, Mohamed Hassan. I saved it, taking a screenshot in the way I might once have carefully torn a photo from a magazine and folded it away into a notebook for later reference. Like a seashell holding onto the sound of waves, it became an amulet of home that could fit into the space of my coat pocket, carrying something of Wales to wherever I was.
Top Picks
Sarn Helen by Tom Bullough | All the Wide Border by Mike Parker
Gary Raymond reflects on two new books, Tom Bullough’s Sarn Helen and Mike Parker’s All the Wide Border, that follow the journeys of men across Wales and finds overlapping concerns from very different characters.
Read the full piece, here.
Gŵyl Cymru Festival to Return for 2023
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) and Arts Council of Wales today announce the return of Gŵyl Cymru Festival for 2023. The ambition is to put football and creativity at the heart of our communities and for sport and the arts to showcase what’s best about Wales, whether it’s on the international pitch, or at grassroots level.
Read the full review, here.
Charles: The King and Wales by Huw Thomas | Review
As the world gets ready to turn its attention to Westminster Abbey and the coronation of King Charles III, Emma Schofield takes a look at, Charles: The King and Wales, a new book by Huw Thomas which explores the relationship between the new monarch and Wales.
Read the full review, here.
Video of the Week
This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. This week’s video is ‘Geiriau Ffug’, a new music video from Ffatri Jam.
In case you missed it…
Katie Munnik in Conversation
Katie Munnik, author of The Aerialist, reveals her approach to storytelling and some of her greatest inspirations, including the influence of her Canadian heritage on her poetic narrativity.
Gary Raymond: Canada has a real cultural importance to you, how has that affected your attitude to storytelling?
Katie Munnik: It creates storytellers, it's a rich literary culture. That's the soil that I grew up in, but I continue to be inspired by Canada. I think my shelf is mainly CanLit. Those are the voices that I returned to and when I meet local Welsh-Canadian writers, it's really exciting to hear their journey and experiences. So the Canada Day event that I organised at St. Cannas pub was an opportunity to gather some of those voices together. Everybody incorporated somebody that they were inspired by as well. There's something special about being in the presence of the spoken word when it's the written word as well, I like to use the word translated there, because when you change from something that is written into making it oral, it creates community in a new way, it changes the intimacy of the written word.