Heglu

Hard to believe, but the Heglu project has been all wrapped up now.

It culminated with an exhibition at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead (Jan-Feb 2010), and was more successful and well received then we ever imagined it would be.

There is now a Heglu book which documents the project photographically:

And here’s the first part of the Heglu film I made with the service users at Tyddyn Mon:

The film was shown on loop as part of an exhibit and acted as a kind of window into what the project was all about.

If you have any enquiries about the project then email tomsimone99@yahoo.co.uk.

Many thanks to Tyddyn Mon, the Arts Council of Wales, Anglesey Council’s waste management dpt, and everyone else who contributed to the project.

We had the opening night of the Heglu exhibition at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead on Saturday and it will now run until February 7th – so make sure you go and see it!

Loads of people turned up for the opening despite the bad weather, including some of the service users from Tyddyn Mon.

We cut it very fine for setting up (I was still putting up photographs as people were walking through the door), but we pulled it off and everybody was impressed by the works on display.

On the walls are: Ashley’s Mr Men buses, Jamie’s paintings, a 3D collaborative painting, nine smaller paintings arranged in a square and nine photographs also arranged in a square.

The sculptures include brainstorm, lighthouse and platypus, which were made by Richard and the service users at Tyddyn Mon.

And finally there is my film piece showing us working at Tyddyn Mon…

…I’ll post up some photos and footage here in the coming week.

We have set the date for the opening night of the Helgu exhibition at the Ucheldre Centre – Saturday, January 9 at 7pm.

We’ve also got our posters, leaflets and invites printed out…

We’re in the build up to our main exhibition of the Heglu project at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead.

The opening night will probably be January 8th (2010!), which is a Friday. (EDIT – Saturday, Jan 10, 7pm)

Rich and I are still selecting from the fantastic body of work we’ve created with the help of people at Tyddyn Mon.

There’s Bryn’s lighthouse, an easy choice because it symbolises both ideas of periphery, one of the project’s main themes, as well as being a very real expression of Bryn’s personal narrative.

I also really like Ashley’s Mr Men paintings, which we’ve titled ‘Heymurp’, the made up(?) word he’s written on the side of the buses.

There’s also ‘Brainstorm’, of the main sculptural pieces, a giant 3D painting, masks, drawings, and my film…. you can see why the selection process is quite difficult.

For Rich and I, the exhibition will be the culmination of two years’ work and something we’re obviously really excited about.

Heglu started out as being about working on the margins – with waste materials (which, of course, are cheap), working in places where there isn’t much mainstream art, and with people whose contribution to society is often overlooked.

I think we’ve maintained that idea of ‘periphery’, but Heglu has also drawn in ideas of expressing oneself through art, the personal narratives of all of us who have worked on the project.

Femke van Gent will be performing at the exhibition – a response to the pieces which have been made at Tyddyn Mon. This will add another dimension to the exhibition and will definitely be something not to miss!

Meanwhile, there are more mundane things to be getting on with, such as designing promotional leaflets and posters… Ah well, no pain no game.

Lots of stuff coming together now – Rich et al have made a lot of progress on the main sculptural piece and everybody produced something of their own.
Yvonne’s dog is particularly good.

[View with PicLens]

Rich used a large wooden board as a canvas that everyone could work on. We’d used it previously as a platform for the viking boat and rat-catcher sculptures, which can be seen on the Mail’s website.
This time I put my camera high up on a metal cupboard and used my 10-20mm wide angle lens. I used an intervalometer to take a photo every 5 seconds.
The resulting time lapse shows how pretty much everyone got involved in creating the 3D painting.
At first Rich felt the painting may have been a bit too chaotic, but changed his mind when he viewed it upright from greater distance.
The painting is matched by a piece of abstract sculpture, a kind of ‘brain/tree’, and both compel you to look at them.
It is not just that the pieces are influenced and created by such a range of characters and individuals, it is that they are very strong pieces in their own right (IMHO anyway).

Here’s the time lapse:
[pro-player]http://www.heglu.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/tyddyn-mon-time-lapse-fina1.flv[/pro-player]

Although this project is still underway, it’s taken going on a year up until now and in that time we’ve got a fair amount of media coverage.
Bangor and Anglesey Mail:
Tyddyn Mon sculpture – from viking boat to rat catcher.

northwales.co.uk and dailypost.co.uk :

A SCULPTOR’S work has been raising eyebrows at locations across Anglesey.
Richard Houghton’s sculptures, which are made from waste materials found on the island, have appeared briefly next the lighthouse at Penmon, an abandoned hotel in Benllech, a field near Llangefni and a petrol station in Amlwch.
Dutch artist Femke van Gent, who Richard has been working with, even took a pair of disembodied legs to the scrap yard in Gaerwen, much to the amusement of the people working there.
The sculptures have been photographed by Tom Simone, who works for the Daily Post, and will be exhibited at the Ucheldre Centre in Holyhead from January 10 to February 8.
The exhibition is titled “Heglu”, which roughly translates as making a run for it.
Richard said: “I have used discarded materials I’ve found on Anglesey and it seemed quite fitting to photograph the finished sculptures at well known places here.
“This is the initial stage in a collaborative project with the Waste Management division of Anglesey Council, and Tyddyn Môn, a charity for people with learning difficulties.

“After our exhibition at the Ucheldre Centre the people at Tyddyn Môn will transform one of my sculptures and a final piece will be installed at the Anglesey tip.”
For further details call the Ucheldre Centre on 01407 763361.

And on local radio – haven’t got the recording though…

It’s Thursday – our fourth day at Tyddyn Mon.
Rich and I have started to get to know the people here a lot better, and find out the things they are good at.
Jamie and Ashley have done some great paintings and pictures. Both get in the ‘zone’ when they’re presented with a blank canvas and I think they’re work will look really good in the galleries.
Daniel really enjoyed taking some photos, which I’ve uploaded here.
Aaron has lots of ideas. Robert is great at drilling and enjoyed the sculpture. Beccy and Bryn produced some interesting papier mache by selecting certain photos out of magazines.
Rich is currently working with Julie, Rob, Aaron and Daniel on a large scale 3D canvas, which is starting to look really good.
I’ve done a couple of cool looking time lapses and have yet to wade through loads of video footage.
After two weeks we’re going to have masses of material and I think the hard part will be cutting it down and choosing which things to exhibit.

You can click on the thumbnails below to see the full image. They’re basically a selection of things we’ve been up to in the last couple of days.

Yesterday was our first day at Tyddyn Mon. Rich got people to do some painting in the morning and papier mache in the afternoon.
Jamie was really good at the painting, and pictured above is Bryn doing some papier machier work.

Heglu – Rich and I start our two week stint at Tyddyn Mon tomorrow, where we will be working with adults with learning difficulties.
He will be doing sculpture and painting work, and I (hopefully) will be doing some video and photography work.