oriel DAVIES gallery

Grief Encounters a new work by Cai Tomos 'Grief Encounters' is a live installation. An invitation to explore and share the themes and threads of Cai Tomos’ current work. Thursday 28th, Friday 29th, and Saturday 30th May, 1pm - 3pm Drop in, stay for as little or as long as you like. FREE, all welcome. Link in bio ------------ This is a conversation It’s a way of being together A way to say something To share something A kind of ritual The kind that kids do without thinking A kind of remembering Yes, a remembering It’s about joy too Of course it is. It’s about a longing And searching for a way forward somehow It’s a song And a prayer A meditation on loosing it And It’s a dance Definitely a Dance ------------ Cyfarfyddiadau Galar gwaith newydd gan Cai Tomos Mae 'Cyfarfyddiadau Galar' yn osodiad byw. Gwahoddiad i archwilio a rhannu themâu a llinynnau gwaith cyfredol Cai Tomos. Dydd Iau 28ain, Dydd Gwener 29ain, a Dydd Sadwrn 30ain Mai, 1pm - 3pm Galwch heibio, arhoswch am gyn lleied neu gyhyd ag y dymunwch. AM DDIM, croeso i bawb. Dolen yn y bio

Sharing this again for Mental Health Awareness Week. Here at Oriel Davies we believe passionatley in the power of the arts to connect with nature and improve wellbeing. Oriel Davies Gallery teamed up with Powys Teaching Health Board, Open Newtown and Plant Life to run a series of free creative workshops Between May and July for people who were experiencing challenges with their mental health. This project - Clwb Crefft - was funded by Arts Council Wales. Artist team Jeanette Gray and Gareth Fysh-Foskett delivered a programme encompassing weaving , and green woodworking, mindfulness practices, poetry, foraging, rambles and cooking over fire, providing expert tuition and resources that supported individual and group creativity. In their feedback participants commented positively on the project and how it provided new learning and skills, enjoyment, increased connection to nature, new friendships and useful strategies for improving their wellbeing. Animator Efa Blosse-Mason produced a thoughtful short animation based on feedback from one of the project participants. Ymunodd Oriel Davies Gallery â Bwrdd Iechyd Addysgu Powys, Open Newtown a Plant Life i gynnal cyfres o weithdai creadigol am ddim rhwng mis Mai a mis Gorffennaf i bobl oedd yn profi heriau gyda'u hiechyd meddwl. Ariannwyd y prosiect hwn - Clwb Crefft - gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru. Cyflwynodd y tîm artistiaid Jeanette Gray a Gareth Fysh-Foskett raglen a oedd yn cwmpasu gwehyddu, a gwaith coed gwyrdd, arferion ymwybyddiaeth ofalgar, barddoniaeth, chwilota bwyd, crwydro a choginio dros dân, gan ddarparu hyfforddiant ac adnoddau arbenigol a gefnogodd greadigrwydd unigol a grŵp. Yn eu hadborth, gwnaeth y cyfranogwyr sylwadau cadarnhaol ar y prosiect a sut y darparodd ddysgu a sgiliau newydd, mwynhad, cysylltiad cynyddol â natur, cyfeillgarwch newydd a strategaethau defnyddiol ar gyfer gwella eu lles. Cynhyrchodd yr animeiddiwr Efa Blosse-Mason animeiddiad byr meddylgar yn seiliedig ar adborth gan un o gyfranogwyr y prosiect. #mentalhealthawarenessweek

Creative Play for Families Half Term Sessions Friday 29th May 10.30am – 12noon 1.30pm – 3pm Inspired by textile craft traditions from around the world featured in our upcoming exhibition Shaping Nations Bilingual sessions led by Clara Lloyd Book your free place now - please book a place for each family member Link in bio Chwarae Creadigol i Deuluoedd Sesiynau Hanner Tymor Dydd Gwener 29ain Mai 10.30am – 12pm 1.30pm – 3pm Wedi'i ysbrydoli gan draddodiadau crefft tecstilau o bob cwr o'r byd a welir yn ein harddangosfa Llunio Cenhedloedd Sesiynau dwyieithog dan arweiniad Clara Lloyd Archebwch eich lle am ddim nawr - archebwch le i bob aelod o'r teulu Dolen yn y bio CLARA LLOYD Creative Arts & Play Therapy Chwarae & Celfyddydau Creadigol Newtown Integrated Family CentreFamily Information Powys Gwybodaeth i Deuluoedd

A FEW SPACES HAVE BECOME AVAILABLE - book now Movement for health Cai Tomos "The sessions are suitable for all abilities – those who are energetic and the ones who are restricted in their ability to move, those who have problems with pain or are recovering from an illness." Cai Tomos is Independent Dance artist, Art Psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. He has worked both nationally and internationally as a dancer and maker. He lives in Rural Mid Wales. His practice spans from dancing and making, to facilitating arts and health work with adults both in hospitals and in theatre settings. Book your free place now. Donations welcome. The sessions run between 11am - 12pm on the following Thursdays May 14th May 28th June 4th June 11th June 18th For more information and to book your place Link in bio MAE YCHYDIG O LEOEDD AR GAEL - archebwch nawr Symudiad er lles iechyd Cai Tomos "Mae'r sesiynau'n addas ar gyfer pob gallu - y rhai sy'n egnïol a'r rhai sydd â chyfyngiadau yn eu gallu i symud, y rhai sydd â phroblemau gyda phoen neu sy'n gwella o salwch." Mae Cai Tomos yn artist dawns annibynnol, seicotherapydd celf ac ymarferydd profiad somatig. Mae wedi gweithio'n genedlaethol ac yn rhyngwladol fel dawnsiwr a gwneuthurwr. Mae'n byw yng Nghanolbarth Cymru Wledig. Mae ei ymarfer yn amrywio o ddawnsio a chreu, i hwyluso gwaith celfyddydau ac iechyd gydag oedolion mewn ysbytai ac mewn lleoliadau theatr. Archebwch eich lle am ddim nawr. Croeso i roddion. Mae'r sesiynau'n rhedeg rhwng 11am - 12pm ar y dyddiau Iau canlynol Mai 14eg Mai 28ain Mehefin 4ydd Mehefin 11eg Mehefin 18fed Am ragor o wybodaeth ac i archebu eich lle Dolen yn y bio

Vivaldi The Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà is not a neutral container. It is a building saturated with musical memory — a place where Vivaldi composed for the figlie di coro, young women whose virtuosity was celebrated even as their identities were obscured behind screens. When the artists intervene in this space, they inevitably brush against that history. Their materials, their pacing, their attention to breath and resonance all pick up on the building’s acoustic inheritance. This doesn’t mean the work becomes about Vivaldi. Instead, it becomes about listening to the layers that precede us: the architectural rhythms, the histories of care and constraint, the way sound once moved through these rooms. The installation adds a contemporary layer to that palimpsest — one that speaks to precarity, ecology, and cultural survival, but always in relation to what the building already holds. My use of Max Richter’s Recomposed in the posts is a deliberate extension of this idea. Richter’s approach to Vivaldi mirrors the exhibition’s approach to the Pietà: he doesn’t erase the original, but neither does he treat it as untouchable. He works with it as material — stretching it, looping it, allowing it to breathe differently. It becomes a conversation across time rather than an act of homage. In that sense, Recomposed becomes a sonic analogue for the exhibition: a way of acknowledging the past while making space for new forms of attention, new forms of listening, new forms of being in the world. Sownd: @manon_awst @dylan__huw @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @walesinvenice @catherinespring @colwinstoncharitabletrust @artfund #cymruynfenis #labiennale @maxrichtermusic

I. Approaching the Threshold To enter Sownd is to step into a world where the ground is never quite solid. The wooden boardwalk that carries visitors through the installation is both a practical structure and a conceptual device: a reminder that we are moving across terrain that is shifting, layered, and alive. As the artists write, “Everything within the work is sculptural — including language,” and this principle shapes the entire environment. Sownd is not an exhibition of discrete works but a single, continuous ecology — a living installation that accumulates, sediments, and transforms over time. The title itself, a Cymraeg/Welsh word meaning both “stuck” and “foundationally sound,” captures the paradox at the heart of the project: the tension between precarity and resilience that defines minoritised languages, fragile ecologies, and the cultural histories embedded in the Welsh landscape. Sownd @manon_awst @dylan__huw @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @walesinvenice @catherinespring @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust #cymruynfenis #labiennale

II. Peatlands: The World Beneath the World The conceptual ground of Sownd is the Welsh peatland — sticky, unstable, and ancient. These bogs, the artists note, “conceal and reveal vast scales of material history,” functioning as archives where organic matter and cultural memory accumulate over millennia. Alys Fowler, in her book Peatland, describes bogs as living, relational systems: places where water, moss, soil, and time interweave in slow, intricate processes. She writes of the sensation of walking on peat — the softness underfoot, the subtle give of the ground, the sense of being held by something both fragile and deep. This embodied experience resonates with the boardwalk’s choreography in Sownd, which guides visitors across “unstable ground” while making them acutely aware of the material beneath. Carwyn Graves’ book, Tir, offers a complementary perspective, framing the Welsh landscape as a cultural archive shaped by centuries of human practice, linguistic memory, and ecological adaptation. Graves reminds us that landscapes are not passive backdrops but active records — places where histories are held in soil, vegetation, and naming. Sownd extends this argument into a sculptural register, treating peat not only as ecological matter but as a metaphor for the sedimented histories of language and identity. Sownd: @manon_awst @dylan__huw @walesinvenice @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @catherinespring @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust #cymruynfenis #labiennale @alysf #carwengraves

III. Portals, Otherworlds, and the Logic of Liminality Peatlands have long been understood as thresholds. In medieval Welsh cosmology — echoed in the Mabinogion — bogs and marshes were portals to Annwn, the otherworld. The exhibition’s sound piece, which refigures the medieval poem Y Pwll Mawn, draws directly on this tradition: a lovelorn poet stranded on a peat pit at night, caught between worlds. The bog becomes a site of vulnerability and revelation, a place where the boundaries between the living and the dead, the past and the present, the visible and the invisible, dissolve. This logic of parallel realities finds a contemporary echo in the “Upside Down” of the Netflix series Stranger Things: a shadow ecology beneath the surface, shaped by decay, memory, and unseen forces. Like the Upside Down, peatlands hold a world beneath the world — a place where time behaves differently, where histories are preserved and distorted, where the ground itself becomes a portal. Sownd invites visitors to sense this doubleness, to move between layers of reality. Sownd: @manon_awst @dylan__huw @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @walesinvenice @catherinespring @fowlone @christianbrown @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust #cymruynfenis #labiennale

IV. Language as Material, Language as Magic If peat is the material archive of the land, language is its living counterpart. In Sownd, Welsh and English echo through the sound installation, not as translations but as parallel presences. This treatment of language resonates with Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, where the Old Speech — the language of true names — is not symbolic but world‑shaping. Naming is an act of creation, responsibility, and relation. In Sownd, Welsh operates similarly: not as a cultural artefact but as a sculptural force embedded in the land itself. The exhibition’s sampling methodology — its gathering of fragments, its layering of temporalities, its refusal of closure — mirrors the narrative logic of the Mabinogion and the mythic shapeshifting of figures like Gwydion and Rhiannon. Language here is not fixed but fluid, capable of transformation, recomposition, and survival. Sownd @dylan__huw @manon_awst @walesinvenice @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @catherinespring @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust #cymruynfenis #labiennale

V. Entanglement: A Queer Ecology The exhibition’s emphasis on entanglement resonates strongly with Tim Morton’s writing on queer ecology, which challenges the boundaries that traditionally separate nature from culture, past from present, and human from non-human. Morton argues that ecological thinking requires a queering of categories — an acceptance of the messy, interdependent, and often unstable relations that shape our world. Sownd enacts this logic. The gabion pillars in Room 2 — “close to bursting with ‘stuff’” — are composite bodies of knowledge, filled with geotextiles, grasses, paper, rope, earth, gravel, and research materials. They are “strange strangers” in Morton’s sense: entities we can never fully know, yet must learn to live with. The space, imbued by these materials, becomes a record of entanglement. The sound installation, with its shifting voices and layered temporalities, queers the linearity of narrative and the stability of identity. As curator, I also draw on the Design Museum’s catalogue More than Human: Making with the Living World, which argues for a shift from designing for nature to designing with it. This perspective illuminates the installation’s attention to ecological processes, material interdependence, and the agency of non-human systems. Like the projects documented in the Design Museum catalogue, Sownd resists anthropocentric narratives, instead foregrounding collaboration, reciprocity, and the slow intelligence of landscapes such as peatlands. Sownd @manon_awst @dylan__huw @walesinvenice @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust @catherinespring @designmuseum #cymruynfenis #labiennale

VII. Invisible Structures, Composite Worlds There is also a Calvino-like quality to Sownd’s architecture — a lightness that does not diminish depth, but instead allows materials, languages, and histories to circulate with new relational force. Like the cities of Invisible Cities, the exhibition unfolds as a constellation of fragments: objects, sounds, and texts that form a composite world built from memory, ecology, and imagination. Calvino reminds us that the structures shaping our lives are often invisible — currents, stories, names, sediments — and Sownd makes these structures tangible. The grid of found objects in Room 1, the compressed pillars in Room 2, the layered sound in Room 3, and the reflective space in Room 4 together form an archipelago of encounters. Each room is an island; the boardwalk is the current that connects them. Sownd by @manon_awst and @dylan__huw @walesinvenice @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin @catherinespring @artfund @colwinstoncharitabletrust #cymruynfenis #labiennale

VIII. Toward a Future That Remembers In an era marked by ecological crisis, linguistic erosion, and cultural fragmentation, Sownd by @dylan__huw and @manon_awst offers a different model of attention — one that is slow, layered, and relational. It asks what it means to inhabit a world where nothing is permanent, where the ground itself trembles, and where histories are always in the process of being rewritten. The exhibition proposes that resilience lies not in solidity but in entanglement. Like peatlands, like minoritised languages, like the stories of the Mabinogion, like the cities of Calvino, like the Old Speech of Earthsea, Sownd is a world built from fragments — a world that persists through relation. It invites us to listen to what lies beneath the surface. To sense the world beneath the world. To find, within the unstable ground, something foundationally sound. @orieldavies @oriel_myrddin 📷 @dewitannattlloyd @walesinvenice @colwinstoncharitabletrust @artfund #cymruynfenis #labiennale