Elgan Wyn Jones
He/Him
I’m a multidisciplinary artist reinventing Welsh mythology through scene-making in dark spaces.
He/Him
“Ac yna fe gymerasant hwy flodau’r deri a blodau’r banadl a blodau’r erwain, ac o’r rhai hynnu swyno’r dorwyn decaf un ar harddaf a welodd dyn erioed.”
Y MABINOGION
Myths are an amalgamation of truth, legend, feeling and poetry. My practice seeks to reinvent Welsh Mythology through a contemporary lens, planting my cultures stories and history in the minds of the audience through an immersive and interactive experience.
The audience walks into a dark room, lit only by a glowing candle. The atmosphere is ritualistic, ominous, yet calming. An industrial space is transformed by dancing shadows, overwhelming the walls with strange figures, morphing between the human and inhuman. The drawn images are naturalistic, detailed, mysterious and magical, the figures reminiscent of childhood puppet shows; mystical yet macabre.
The show is founded on imagery, motifs and characters taken from ‘The Mabinogion’, Wales’s most foundational collection of mythology. My practice refers constantly to Blodeuwedd’s story; a contradicting, unusual depiction of gender relations, sexual prowess, nature, and metamorphosis. Blodeuwedd is a woman made of flowers, made to be the wife of a powerful man, she rebels against him and is transformed into an owl as punishment, destined to stalk the night sky. Transformation in myth is a form of punishment, symbolic of rebirth, reclamation or doom, playing both with nature as a reflection of humanity, and a curse. My practise contrasts the natural and unnatural – a conflict between light and dark, new and old.
The Shadow puppets are made using vellum paper, which I used to print, and then hand-cut out my drawings. I use an inverted drawing style to replicate the feel of printmaking whilst allowing for looser and quicker drawing output.
My artistic visual language is drawn from traditional Welsh art practices, printmaking and woodcarving, which is often monochrome using black and red. I want to pay homage to traditional Welsh art history practices, without repeating oversaturated iconography.
My practice began with narrative in its simplest form: the storybook. For the show, I first wrote and illustrated my own adapted version of Blodeuwedd’s story, in which she reclaims her identity and being.
Through my creative practice I have found a passion for the wellbeing benefits of art-making and have throughout my time at University, been a volunteer working various roles in the social care sector. Drawing has always been a therapeutic practice, an action which helps me process my thoughts and emotions through physical, calming, movement. I believe that art and craft-making should be a more available and widely used in social care and wellbeing practices.