- Venue
- Ceri Hand Gallery
- Location
- North West England
Bedwyr Williams first show at Ceri Hand Gallery in Liverpool is quite simply mesmeric.
In the press release he explains,
“There is the nightmare where a pogo stick made from glossy human body parts vaults down a leafy avenue and jabs me in the chest forcing the air out of my lungs so I can’t scream. There is also the nightmare where I’m in the back of a speeding car with no driver. There is the abstract big/small dream where my mind big bangs and bangs big over and over again. There are the stupid nightmares that I bore people with at breakfast time. But the worst of all, the one that scalds my brain with dread is this one: it’s a sunny day and I’m alone. I hear a drone in the sky, looking up I see a plane and then another and another. Hundreds, thousands of planes – they’re not planes though, I don’t know what they are…”
The show shares it’s title with an Israeli Missile, an SAS operation, a foolish person and, of course, a composition by Edward Elgar.
Ceri Hand Gallery is very special, like entering an alternative universe. You leave the Liverpool dockland behind at the door and are transported to New York, or Venice. It is a beautiful space.
We arrived early and were able to witness the space being transformed from a light, bright, clean space into Bedwyr Williams’ vision. The dry ice slowly engulfed the air creating a foggy environment with the mysterious aircraft hovering in and out of view. The soundtrack to the piece plays with both the repetitive and the low looming quality of the objects on display. There is a sense of threat but also wonder. The work has a rye dark humour, which I really like and which plays with our sense of security. On the ground a small airport, complete with hangar and departure building has advertisements with messages such as “What if your last breath was a burp?”, the sort of irrational fear that we often think about but rarely express. All the time the rumbling audio track reminds us of the skateboard and walking stick planes that hover motionless above us.
In a smaller side gallery, a number of other works by the artist can be seen.
I missed the performance on the opening night but I particularly liked the book work, Methodist to my Madness. A framed copy of the bible in Welsh which has been posted over with a conversation piece about artist duos and other things. I believe this is used as part of his performance work.
Bedwyr Williams shows himself to be an intelligent and challenging visual artist whose work encourages engagement.