g39
Oxford St, CARDIFF CF24 3DT
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opening times - 11-5pm Wednesday to Saturday
  • Uriel Orlow, <i>Holy Precursor</i> (2011). Courtesy: Lux
  • Jonathan Powell, <i>When We Build Again</i> (studio shot), Bitumen, oil on unframed canvas
  • Abigail Reynolds, <i>Devaluation</i> (2012), book pages 29.5 x 21cm
  • Rich White, <i>Survivalist</i>. (c) The artist
  • Angharad Pearce Jones, <i>“This Way Please ….” / “Ffordd ‘Ma Plis….”</i>, painted steel, painted MDF, 4 x 5 m. Photo: Betina Skovbro
  • Geraint Evans, <i>Street Vendor</i> (2013), pencil on paper, 84x60 cm
  • Dan Griffiths <i>

Programme

Barnraising & Bunkers

preview 4 May 2013

Uriel Orlow, <i>Holy Precursor</i> (2011). Courtesy: Lux
Uriel Orlow, Holy Precursor (2011). Courtesy: Lux

Despite the desires of architects and planners, the growth of the built environment happens organically at the will of its inhabitants. This environment is a process, not a fixed state. The exhibition Barnraising and Bunkers looks at our impulse for shelter, and how we choose to build. If Barnraising epitomises collective action and co-operation, Bunkers suggest the opposite, a singular act. It features work by artists who engage with architectural or physical structures, through their construction and our navigation within them, around them and through them.


We often think of urban and rural being in opposition – the former synonymous with presence and the latter with absence. As our basic need to create shelter gave us our first dwellings, so these clustered to form villages and eventually cities. But urban dreams of utopian living and social cohesion do not always survive the accelerated and fragmented organic growth of the places we inhabit. When the dividing line between public spaces and private spaces is drawn so distinctly society will find ways of redrawing the line – or at least blurring its edges.

Barnraising and Bunkers forms part of the Diffusion festival, Cardiff's International Festival of Photography http://www.diffusionfestival.org/.