GS Artists are thrilled to announce the talented artists participating in our upcoming exhibition, Where is ‘Away’?, especially curated for GS Artists by Ophelia Dos Santos.
Join us on Saturday July 20th, 2-4pm to celebrate the creativity and innovation of these incredible artists, whose works directly or indirectly explore themes of nature and identity. We hope these voices together will illustrate a story of resilience; provoking thoughts around Where is ‘Away’?
Open Wednesday – Saturday, 11am- 4pm, Until Friday 23rd August.
Where is ‘Away” considers the journey of discarded clothing, fabric and other textiles from Wales to countries in the global South. This exhibition explores threads that connect our colonial past to the contemporary textile industries waste crisis.
When we “throw things away” where do they go? The paradoxical phrase suggests the thing we are getting rid of ceases to exist. In reality, the thing we are disposing of does not truly disappear; it simply changes location. The idea of throwing something away often implies that we are removing it from our lives and responsibilities. However, the items we discard can continue to have an environmental and social impact, contributing to the pollution of lands and seas, destroying livelihoods and disrupting ecosystems.
Around 620,000 tons of used textiles are collected every year for reuse and recycling within the UK and 60% of these textiles are exported, according to data by WRAP. In 2021, Ghana imported $214m (£171m) of used clothes, making it the world’s biggest importer. Donated clothes come from countries including the UK, US and China and are sold to exporters and importers who then sell them to vendors in places such as Kantamanto in Accra, one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets.
The exhibition invites visitors to reflect and contemplate on the fabrics we interact with every day – where they might have come from and where they might end up. As they immerse themselves in textiles, photography, poetry and more, we hope to instill a sense of responsibility and empowerment in their consumption habits. The exhibition also aims to highlight Welsh and Wales based creators using scrap and recycled materials, with an emphasis on diaspora voices.
List of artists, biographies and images;
Taylor Edmonds @tayloredmonds
Nicole Chui @thatsewnicole
Mohamed Hassan @mohamedhassanphoto_
Liaqat Rasul @liaqatrasulart
Asma Elmi @_asmaiiii
Delphi Campbell @delphicampbell
Rosie Evans @rosieevansonline
Adeola Dewis @mamadatismas
Ella Louise Jones @ellalouisejones_celf
The Or Foundation @theorispresent
Karina Geddes @karinaismsillustration
Caryl Bulman @celf.caryl.art
Ophelia Dos Santos @opheliadossantos
Taylor Edmonds is a poet, writer, creative facilitator and marketing manager from South Wales. Her work explores themes of womanhood, identity, connection, nature and empowerment. Taylor was the 2021 Poet in Residence for the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. She is driven by improving the accessibility of creative writing to communities and championing the positive benefits of writing on individual’s wellbeing.
Nicole Chui is an artist specialising in freestyle hand embroidery, based in London. Through stitch, her work is driven by the desire to preserve and create memories, disrupt perfection, and unpick traditions. She is currently exploring the integration of her identity in football culture. After graduating from London College of Fashion with a degree in BA (Hons) Creative Direction for Fashion, Chui was selected as one of the ‘25 future faces 25 and under’ by the Evening Standard in 2019.
Ella Louise Jones is a Welsh artist, currently based in North Wales and Manchester. Ella creates installations, sculptures and costumes centered on creating tangible interaction between audience and artwork. Science and psychology inform Ella’s work on touch, from the macro to the micro, from touch therapies and sensory rooms to the workings of touch receptors in the brain.
Liaqat Rasul is a dyslexic gay Welsh Pakistani fibre and collage artist, from Wrexham, North Wales. Liaqat studied fashion, gaining a first-class degree, specializing in textiles. He spent a year in the industry, working and studying in New Delhi, India. Liberty’s in Regent Street, London, brought his graduating collection, and he ran the business Ghulam Sakina for ten years, creating textile clothing.
Adéọlá Dewis is an artist based in Wales. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Adéọlá explores expressions of identity and belonging through the visual and performance aesthetics of Carnival/mas’, masquerade and folk rituals. Her practice involves drawing, painting, performance art, spoken word and writing often looking at modes of transformation and ways of representing self, utilizing carnival performance aesthetics.
Mohamed Hassan is a photographer, originally from Alexandria who has been living and working in Pembrokeshire, in west Wales since 2007. He has been shortlisted for several awards and competitions, and exhibited works at the Mission Gallery, the Waterfront National Museum, the Trajectory Showcase Competition Exhibition, Nova Cymru 2018, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Rosie Evans is a Welsh fashion designer, living and working in Brighton, West England. Her namesake brand Rosie Evans creates one off and small runs of anachronistic historically inspired fashion, following the ethical practices of upcycling old textiles and materials. Sustainability and the ethos of recycling runs through Rosie works using ‘fabrics with a past’.
Caryl Bulman is a South Wales-based surface pattern and textiles student with a passion for experimentation and creativity. Caryl’s designs are driven by a love for colour, texture, and pattern, and I am always looking for new ways to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Delphi Campbell is a sculptor exploring self-portraiture and identity. Delphi studied Fine Art with Honours at the Cardiff School of Art & Design at Cardiff Metropolitan University. To date Delphi has exhibited in Worcester, Cardiff, Oxford, Bath and at MOMA Machynlleth as one of their selected nine Young Welsh Artists 2021-22, and through Covid-19, participated in a number of digital exhibitions.
The Or Foundation (pronounced “or”) stands for choice. Choice is agency – agency to escape the predominant violent socio-economic system of corporate colonialism and to change it from within. We are a 501(C)(3) public charity in the USA and a registered charity in Ghana that has been operating in both countries since 2011. Working at the intersection of environmental justice, education and fashion development, our mission is to identify and manifest alternatives to the dominant model of fashion – alternatives that bring forth ecological prosperity, as opposed to destruction, and that inspire citizens to form a relationship with fashion that extends beyond their role as consumer.
Karina Geddes is an artist who illustrates using textiles. Her inspiration stems from traditional Welsh, European folklore and classical narratives. Karina’s combined passions for history, traditional craft and story telling permeate her work. Karina enjoys researching her subject matter and immersing herself in the narrative as much as she enjoys the act of making art.
Ophelia Dos Santos is Welsh textile designer, researcher and educator based in Cardiff, South Wales. Viewing the world through textiles, Ophelia’s work considers the relationships between fabric, culture and communities. By patching together discarded scraps, she aims to open and inform dialogue around climate justice and equality, the over-consumption and waste of the modern-day fashion industry.
Asma Elmi is a Creative Director, multidisciplinary artist and graduate of University of South Wales (Fashion Promotion). Asma is the Creative Director and founder of Al Naaem – an editorial magazine that is Muslim and female-led. Al Naaem seeks to platform, celebrate and role-model inspirational female Muslim and Global Majority artists across artforms.