Hard Copy

3 July 1999 - 0 January 0000

Language and communication, in both visual and verbal forms are played upon and deconstructed in Hard Copy, a collaboration between Chris Lloyd and Wayen Gruffudd.


Before entering the gallery at g39 you come across a piece of work at the front door: a brass plaque which lists, by name and title, all of the artists who have worked in the gallery to date. The nameplate by Chris Lloyd confirms all the past efforts of individuals involved, while the future of the artist-run space at g39 is looking uncertain. In the fast changing, cut-and-thrust of the Cardiff cultural scene, a long wait for funding decisions means this may be the last exhibition in the gallery. The nameplate is worryingly poised somewhere between being a company sign and a '...once worked here...' heritage plaque. This is typical of Chris's work: The objects are familiar while the message is not the one that we expect. Chris Lloyd's work uses a system of re-presenting things that are already familiar to us, but by subtly subverting or changing it he stealthily takes us by surprise.

In making Sprachgitter, Wayne Gruffudd has meticulously deconstructed the entire dictionary and re-presented it as a room whose walls advance and retreat as you attempt to decipher the sheer overload of information. The columns of words are all-encompassing so that in order to truly see the work the viewer is forced to step back, leaving behind word and definition.

Second floor Sprachgitter (Language mesh) Language is a mesh barrier through which we attempt to communicate with others. Emotion, feeling etc. reduced to a limited medium that is (mistranslated by the listener reader. Language is the claustrophobic space in which we live, yet it remains the object of desire - the false hope of 'true' connectedness. Attributed to Paul Celan 1920-70

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