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Towards the end of my undergraduate studies I developed an interest in creating parallel narratives in multimedia and began my first experiments with creating digital images from scanned drawings. These interests were expressed through my use of mythological and historical medieval Welsh texts, in particular two stories from the Welsh collection of stories known as the Mabinogion. After graduating in Interactive Arts from Newport School of Art and Design in 1995, I sought to develop a more thorough understanding of early medieval Wales through an MA in Celto-Roman Studies, under the direction of Miranda Aldhouse-Green and Ray Howell at the University of Wales College, Newport. While developing an interest in early medieval archaeology and new developments in landscape archaeology, my thesis was focussed on Welsh medieval narrative tradition, and its interactions with oral tradition, written literature, material culture and the landscape. One of the central concerns was the way in which the past is created through historical narratives.
Detail of one of the medieval crosses at Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan; detail of a decorated tile by Ada Miller-Williams, c.1890–1910, St Davids, Pembrokeshire Working on the Visual Culture of Wales Project at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies provided an opportunity to develop some of these interests and explore new directions. Sections of the Visual Culture of Wales CD-ROMs examine the way in which visual traditions and motifs of the past have been revived and given new meanings, and consider the role of the past in shaping current and future identities. In particular, I have been researching the imaging of the medieval past and the revival of Celtic Christian styles of ornament, which are central elements of my visual practice.
Nineteenth-century figures by Boulton & Co. on the medieval rood screen at Llananno; fragments of medieval stained glass reset at Llanfair Kilgeddin, Monmouthshire. The process of creating the CD-ROMs has also developed my understanding of the use of parallel and interacting approaches in the presentation of research. I am now taking these ideas further once again in another research project exploring the visual culture of the Bible in Wales, which runs until 2008. As a large part of this current research includes Gothic Revival artwork from churches, I have been continuing to develop my understanding of the reinvention of the medieval in nineteenth and twentieth-century Wales. |
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