Rock Paper Scissors | Siswrn Papur Carreg. Pop up exhibition of drawings at The Talking Shop, Blackwood. 4-18 May 2024.
Recently launched:
The Questioner, a song by Franz Schubert, performed by Tom Guthrie of Music and Theatre for All to promote bicentennial collaborations. London, Nov 2023. See the finished piece here.
Poetry on Show. Pop-up event at Turner House Gallery with Serendiptea poetry group and violinist Marc Elton, responding to Karl Blossfeldt exhibition, March 2024. Photos: David Sinden.
CURRENT WORK
A body of work for exhibition, exploring drawing, printmaking and live performance. Mentoring artists under Arts Council Wales ‘Creative Steps’ programme.
RECENT WORK 2022-24
Scribing Data Governance in Medical Research event at Cardiff University, Dec 2023.
Window for The Talking Shop in Blackwood, Caerphilly, opened March 2024. Omidaze Productions.
Characters for An Inside Story, a mentoring service by Fiona Macbeth using personal narratives to envision change.
Self Help Show residency with Luca Paci at Poesia Presente Lab in Monza, Italy, May 2023 and exhibition at Turner House gallery, Feb-Mar 2023. Conversational space combining writing, illustration, and live performance to reflect on artistic collaboration, friendship and self-help culture.
Nov 2022: 1. Pop-up capture of showcase to MPs at Westminster by Cambridge Children’s Hospital /CUH Arts.
July 2022: visited University of Namibia as part of an Honorary Senior Fellowship with Cardiff University School of Medicine, facilitating visual conversations to aid leadership development and promote connection and wellbeing.
Summer 2022: Illustrating visions of climate futures with communities in South Wales for FLiNT research group, on behalf of the Future Generation Commissioner for Wales.
Review of Self Help Show in Penarth View, Spring 2023.
Observational drawings of actors and musicians at work.
Providing an alternative to cameras and phones in MINCE for Good Cop Bad Cop at Experimentica 2024 with interpreter Cathryn McShane Kouyaté at Chapter Arts; Thomas Guthrie and Barokksolistene Alehouse Sessions at Middle Temple Hall and Balham Bowls Club; Fragments by Actors’ Workshop in Cardiff; Harry Christophers conducting The Sixteen; Connor Fogel and Louis Williamson, RCWMD; Rehearsals for Ladies Day and Treasure Island, Penarth Operatic and Dramatic Society, 2023; Handbell ringers in Rhiwbina, 2021.
”What extraordinary lecture notes… the most enticing I’ve seen.” - Robert MacFarlane
Recording your event. Drawing as active listening, in person and online. Sketched live and developed afterwards.
First two images from a Zoom with David W Gray of School of the Possible around silences and making space, including lessons learned from a clowning workshop which used points of stillness to allow the audience in. I elaborated upon David’s notes on Procreate.
’Data Governance in Medical Research’ event, Cardiff University and Cardiff and Vale NHS, Dec 2023.
”Your artistry really resonated with colleagues on the day, and I’m sure they will have great applications for us.”
Liz Merrifield, Information Governance Lead, Department of Cancer and Genetics, Cardiff University.
’Food, With Care’ online conference, Cambridge University Jan 2022:
”You really did a great job of listening and drawing at the same time… It was a long day and to keep up the momentum, without losing any of the quality, is representative of your skill and dedication to your craft.”
Anna Todd, Communications and Engagement Manager (Cambridge Children’s Hospital project)
>Cambridge University Hospitals: online patient and carer engagement conversations about the design of a new children’s hospital, April-Sept 2021 with architects Hawkins Brown; also Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital Staff and Patient Advisory groups, visualising conversations about new spaces and ways of working.
Images aim to make sense of complexity through everyday metaphors and expressive schema.
”What a brilliant set of illustrations! You’ve captured so much here – each vignette representing an important point of conversation in a way that is so human, and so immediate.”
Natalie Ellis, Head of Arts, Cambridge University Hospitals
”The illustrations have really helped draw out themes and get wide feedback which is exactly what we need!”
Andrea Grosbois, Head of Communications and Engagement, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust
2. Greensand One-Day Residency at Found Outdoors in Wiltshire, with Natasha Mayo. Day led by Claire Loder.
3. Senior Leadership Team Meeting at University of Namibia, July 22. chaired by Pro. Judith Hall. Fellowship work for Cardiff University/Phoenix.
Bringing your event alive in 3D, recording key scenarios and insights, helping teams communicate creatively.
1. Making it personal - a revolution in healthcare. Pop-up of showcase to MPs at Westminster by Cambridge Children’s Hospital, CCRH /CUH Arts Nov 2022.
2. Cardiff University staff research workshop in AHSS Special Collections and Archives Oct 2022. 3D capture with Dr. Emily Cock, Early Modern History.
3. Anatomical Epiphanies. Cardiff University/Phoenix. See also: International Health & Wellbeing. Blog account here.
July 2022: Facilitating visual conversations at University of Namibia Faculty of Health Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Windhoek, with Professors Judith Hall and Quenton Wessels, staff teams and students, reflecting on leadership and personal development.
“Really eye opening... reminds me how visuals can play an important role to facilitate change at a self level and within the spaces we find ourselves. Indeed we all have a story to tell if we are given a platform and you did just that for me. Looking forward to having more conversations and learning opportunities. “
Dr. Arthur Chigova, Lecturer, Dept. of Community Dentistry, UNAM.
4. Climate challenge conversations at Cardiff Animation Festival April 2022, working with Ian Cooke and Rachel Smith for a screening and discussion event organised by Clwstwr/CAF/AHRC Research In Film Awards
5. Paper Forest. First Minister Mark Drakeford, pre-pandemic, with head teacher Martin Hulland and pupils at Cardiff West Community High School tree-planting event with Cardiff University’s Phoenix Project, 2020, led by Prof. Judith Hall.
6. Snape Creative Think Tank on the benefits of singing across the lifespan. Feb 2019. 5-day 'MOT' for creative practitioners, 2018. Drawing, mapping, pop-up conversations, creative writing, walking, music, movement and physical work, with Stephen Langridge and Fiona Macbeth.
"A great team who worked really well together… a masterclass in collaborative leadership.” ”hugely inspiring” “
…an incredible few days by all accounts and has surpassed my expectations.” - Phillipa Reive, Director, Creative Campus, Snape Maltings.
7. Altered Ego identity re-invention project led by David Sinden, funded by Disability Arts Wales, hosted by Cardiff Met and Bath Spa Universities, 2018-20.
8. Faith Garden for Cardiff Met SU/Chaplaincy Inter-faith Week 2020.
9. Carnival of Seeing marquee animated by Steffan Glynn, based on ‘ideas marketplace’ from Cardiff Met’s annual conference 2017, ‘Learning Together.’
10. 360 Data Communications Seminar, Cardiff University July 2019, with delegates from the University of Namibia, in presence of Her Excellency Ms Linda Scott, High Commissioner of Namibia to the UK & NI, and Prof Kenneth Matengu, Vice-Chancellor, UNAM.
11. Royal Geographical Society annual conference Cardiff University Aug 2018 - illustrating papers on ‘Landscape, Becoming and Time’.
”What extraordinary lecture notes… the most enticing I’ve seen.” - Robert MacFarlane
12. Early Career Academics summit at Cardiff University Nov 2018 with keynote Stefan Collini.
Green Lion, April 2024 made at a one-day stone carving course at Wiltshire Museum with Andrew Ziminski, author of The Stone Mason.
June 2023 started stone-carving with Alun Hemming at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff: two heads in Bath stone; The Beginner, Portland stone; Ear, Penarth alabaster. Woman with Sack wax figure cast in bronze, March 2024.
Two pieces with R M Parry for In Their Footsteps festival commemorating the Chartists in Newport, 2017, installed at St Woolos Cathedral: Chartist Boots, modelled by Ned Heywood; Lady Rhondda’s shoes, with vignettes of Newport’s famous suffragist. Made by Julia Land.
“To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.”
- Samuel Beckett, playwright
The Inspector Barrow Mysteries. Character in search of a tv series. From Avebury to Syracuse, Inspector Barrow travels in search of the answers to life’s big questions, using the scantiest of evidence. He’s often in the wrong place at the wrong time but serendipity usually comes to the rescue.
Head shot by David Sinden, March 2024.
Stepping in as Falstaff in Merry Wives with White Cat Theatre, Dec 2023. Photo: Flora Freeman.
Racing pundit Jim McCormack in Ladies Day, PODS, Oct 2023.
Prince John in Sherwood at Carew Castle with Red Herring Theatre, Summer 2023. Photo: Alex Wilson.
Blind Pew in Treasure Island, PODS, March 2023.
Performances from Self Help Show, with Luca Paci at Turner House, Penarth, 2023 and Oriel Canfas 2022. Photos: David Sinden.
From A Mermaid’s Myth, 2020, with geomythologist Erin Kavanagh. The work features in Jean Bonnin’s book Surrealism in Wales (Black Egg, 2020). Photos: Tresaith - Gwydion Kavanagh. Petrified forest, Y Borth - Erin Kavanagh.
Penrolio Penarth (2024) Old New Year celebration including the story of giant king Bendigeidfran.. Pics: David Sinden and Gethin Glynn.
See also: Music
Samuel Beckett quotation from 1961 interview.
Drawn on iPad using Procreate Layers. Clips from:
W11 Opera, London: ‘It’s Your Move’ (Nov 2021).
Nature at Work, animated video for Saltbox Training, encouraging organisations to engage more deeply with the natural world. (July 2022)
Test pieces 2020-21: Downing Street Worm, Trump, Rising Dough, How To Eat Your Own Head.
4-minute animation of Der Neugierige/The Questioner, a song by Franz Schubert, performed and arranged by Tom Guthrie of Music and Theatre for All for a new album and bicentennial celebrations of song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. London, launched Nov 2023. A collaboration with Barokksolistene ensemble.
Tom Guthrie in conversation with Alexander Armstrong about the project here. See the piece on Vimeo here.
We hope to explore material from Winterreise (1827) and songs by Heinrich Heine from Schubert’s last song cycle Schwanengesang.
”Man has, since the Enlightenment, dealt with things he should have ignored.”
- Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time
'Map of the Artist's Mind', Tiree Tech Wave, Oct 2017.
Upcoming concerts with violinist Marc Elton:
Reflections: from Pärt to Piazzola.
Friday 19 July 2024, St Mary’s Priory, Chepstow. 11am.
Saturday 20 July 2024, St Edward’s, Roath. 11am.
Collection on door.
Images:
1. Performing and improvising with poets Luca Paci, Philip Gross and violinist Marc Elton for Poetry on Show at Turner House Gallery 9 March 2024, responding to Hayward touring exhibition of images by Karl Blossfeldt. Photos: David Sinden.
2. Playing the organ for Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Cardiff Concert Orchestra and Côr Bro Ogwr, Porthcawl April 2024.
3. ‘Through the Keyboard’ - ongoing series of experiments using the piano to explore time, place and counterpoint in 3D and moving imagery:
Playthings Coffee Concert, St Edward’s, Cardiff. Own compositions and works by C P E Bach, Haydn, Rameau, Schubert; readings by Luca Paci, Nov 2022. Fundraiser for PEN Cymru. Photos: David Sinden.
Playing for Time. Film with original music: Trusted Notes. shown at a concert Feb 2019 at All Saints Church, Penarth with Benjamin Teague, RM Parry, Luca Paci, Claire Gardner, Bethan Frieze and Ifor Davies. YouTube channel.
Performing Anteludes and accompanying R M Parry at exhibition of surrealist work from Wales and Romania at Senedd Cymru, curated by David Greenslade. Dec 2019.
Recording new pieces in the Dora Stoutzker Hall, RWCMD in summer 2019, with Benjamin Teague.
Five Finger Exercise celebrating the piano, at St Edward’s, April 2018.
3D scores (2018): Fantasia on Wrong Notes; Whole-tone Rag.
3. Antemasque. Musical declaration of welcome with live drawing
at the Residence of the French Ambassador, Kensington, at launch of France-Cardiff Cultural Centre, with R M Parry (2015).
I have accompanied Canton Chorus, Cardiff Quaynotes Choir, Côr Bro Ogwr and Choir With No Name, Cardiff, and have sung with Cardiff Chamber Choir, Côr Ardwyn and BBC NOW Chorus.
2019-23: work on An Inside Story with Fiona Macbeth, designing characters and scenarios for therapeutic storytelling. Fiona uses images and metaphor to facilitate change and create new personal narratives.
”Highly recommended to anyone wanting to gain insight into the depths of their own psyche through the power of stories.”
Selena, client
”Absolutely brilliant. Makes you think about your life from a unique and inspiring angle. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Emily, client
”…you have connected with and given form to something as old as humanity. I felt I was entering a territory that was both unknown and very familiar, something like visiting one's roots… Oh and I must mention those watercolour figures…so enticing and alive, beautiful and moving, having the chance to spend time with them is also one of the reason I will book another session in the future.”
Paola, client
“I love the way your illustrations capture ambiguity and mystery. They are absolute genius and work so well with what I am doing. Perfect!” Fiona Macbeth, creator of An Inside Story
Further info: here
Google reviews: here
Making space for conversation and creative exchange, Paci & Glynn’s Self Help Show toured as a residency to Poesia Presente Lab in Monza, Italy in May 2023, based on exhibitions with live presentations and workshops at The Turner House in Penarth, March 2023 and Oriel Canfas, Cardiff in May 2022.
Project website: www.selfhelpisland.com
The show asks where to seek help in challenging times, reflecting upon themes of loss, isolation and how to read, taking a sideways look at some pros and cons of self-help books.
An illustrated script follows a pair of characters shipwrecked on a strange island, based partly on Shakespeare's The Tempest, accompanied by poems and live music.
Aiuto! SELF HELP SHOW
L'illustratore Chris Glynn e il poeta Luca Paci espongono la loro mostra itinerante fatta di testi e immagini, manipolazioni di libri e musica. Due personaggi naufragati su un'isola incrociano figure tratte dall'opera da La Tempesta di Shakespeare ed i loro stessi sogni da svegli. La rappresentazione rispecchia la situazione degli ultimi tre anni lanciando uno sguardo obliquo e surrealista ai pro e ai contro dell’industria e della cultura dell'auto-aiuto.
The show launched at Oriel Canfas, Cardiff in May 2022 with an Antemasque performed by RM Parry & Son and Ivor Davies filmed by Steffan Szczelkun (you can watch it here) For our opening at Turner House we were joined by Mary-Anne Roberts and Domestic Violins String Band.
“It’s an education just walking through.”
- Chris Griffin, visual artist
”I LOVE this space. The beginning of a conversation that has to be had. Objects, memory, living literature. Thank you!”
- Dick Johns, actor
“Great happening event. Every town needs one.”
– Inga Burrows, senior lecturer in film, USW
”…an incredible depiction of the troubles of lockdown and the effect it had on us all. But also a reminder of how important it is to keep going and to find familiarity and connection in the people and places around us.”
- Katherine Peach, Penarth View
“thank you again for providing such a wonderful opportunity for my students to see your show. One of them told me afterwards that it was the most fun they’ve ever had in a gallery!”
- Prof. Meredith Gattis, Cardiff University
Review of Self Help Show by Megan Farr: Wales Arts Review
Page on Arts Council Wales website.
See also: Hadron Press
Photos of Chris Glynn as self-help guru and Self Help Show events: David Sinden
Projects in Namibia and Zambia.
July 2022: Facilitated visual conversations at University of Namibia Faculty of Health Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, reflecting on leadership and personal development, with sessions in the Anatomical Resources Centre on campus in Windhoek, with Prof. Quenton Wessels and team. See also 3D Conversations. Illustrated blog account here.
“Really eye opening... reminds me how visuals can play an important role to facilitate change at a self level and within the spaces we find ourselves. Indeed we all have a story to tell if we are given a platform and you did just that for me. Looking forward to having more conversations and learning opportunities. “
Dr. Arthur Chigova, Lecturer, Dept. of Community Dentistry, UNAM.
Summer 2021 and 2022: Working with Dr Job Mwanza, Medical Officer for Chongwe District in Zambia, developing local awareness and information campaigns with rural communities.
July 2021: awarded Honorary Senior Research Fellowship with Cardiff University School of Medicine, applying art and design practices within medical health education, leadership development and public engagement, through Prof Judith Hall.
Images:
July 2022: ‘Anatomical Epiphanies’. Visual facilitation at UNAM, with Prof. Quenton Wessels, Prof. Judith Hall, Maria Hainghumbi and other staff and students. See also: 3D Conversations
Summer 2021 ‘COVID-19 is Real’ poster, leaflet and gif based on drawings and texts by rural communities in Siavonga region, Zambia. Photos by Dr. Job Mwanza.
Sept 2021 - Vaccination icons for a multi-lingual nationwide campaign, placed in The Namibian (circulation c 65,000).
July 2021 Nam Vacc Task Animation Task Force- campaign design, UNAM/Phoenix MedEd.
2020-21 : ‘Leadership for Change’. conversations with staff at the University of Namibia, led by Prof.Judith Hall and UNAM’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kenneth Matengu amid challenges of responding to the pandemic. UNAM as a garden.
Curvilinear growth: Cardiff University 2021.
”Chris’ process deepens the understanding and experiences of non-experts. The insights shared have been remarkable and I do think that this work alters people's perception and impacts their thinking.”
Professor Judith Hall OBEPhoenix Project Lead for Cardiff University Head Anaesthetics, Intensive Care, Pain Medicine, Cardiff University
”These are brilliant and very powerful. I was blown away.”
David Hain, Transformation Partners UK
"Amazing to see the incredible work. Absolutely beautiful. It's a scary situation in Namibia, so it’s good to see use of doctors' drawings and the handmade element in the digital images. It helps to open up the information in a compassionate way."
Dr. Frauke Stegmann. Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Namibia.
Call to connect:
Often illustrators operate in isolation, outside institutions or within practice bubbles. And yet, powerful and moving images, deployed in the right contexts, can cross cultural and institutional boundaries: they can connect people in new ways and open up new thinking.
As a very loose tribe, illustrators can - and ought to - get out more and connect beyond the discipline. This research evolves new methods, records and reflects upon impacts, and aims to expand all participants’ horizons through empathic, relational illustration.
2020-21
Woodbird and Ravens animation with set designer Alison Chitty for Goteborg Opera’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle directed by Stephen Langridge. Siegfried was live streamed in March 2021. Götterdämmerung/Ragnarök opened 5 Dec 2021.
Illustrations for W11 Youth Opera’s online productions Jukebox (Dec 2020) and 50th anniversary production It’s Your Move (Dec 2021) .
‘It’s Your Move’ is devised and directed by Susan Moore, with music by Russell Heppelwhite, song lyrics by Tim Yealland and set designs by Neil Irish. I contributed stills and animations. First shown on YouTube Dec 2021.
”Jukebox makes lemonade from lockdown lemons…a clever and joyful one-hour diversion weaving lively animated illustrations by Chris Glynn with performances from 30 young people filmed in their bedrooms, sitting rooms and gardens.” **** THE STAGE
Image 1:
Alison Chitty: Götterdämmerung Ravens Oct 2021
CHROMATOPIA was a moving image and sound piece with artists Ivor Davies and Ren Jie exploring colour and physical materials for an ‘Open Books Online’ group show at The Godown arts centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (‘BUKA BUKU’ Dec 2021), curated by Lienne Loy and team.
Combining stills, video, digital drawing and stop-frame animation. Ivor makes a folding book in his studio, attempting a descent into colour pigments.
To open the conversation with textile sculptor Ren Jie, Ivor shaved off two years’ hair growth and addressed it to ‘Miss Ren’ in Shangai. The third part of the triptych ‘From Blue to Blue-Grey’ focuses on Ren Jie’s book sculpture [image 4] which integrates Ivor’s hair using manufactured thread and blue felt.
The film ends in a quarry near Davies’ birthplace in Treharris. I added my own piano music.
’Open Books’ is curated by Mary Husted. This sequence partners seven Welsh artists with seven artists in Asia, and is supported by the China Academy of Art, Arts Council Wales, the Lottery Fund and Welsh Government.
Image 7: folding book photoshoot with David Sinden and Kate Woodward.
尽管现在时空距离变得更近,信息也更同步,但仍然有些东西是无法言传的。深层、微妙、隐蔽。想象也许比直接的沟通更能触及它们。
”Although the distance between time and space is now closer and information is more synchronised, there are still things that cannot be said in words. Deep, subtle and hidden. Imagination may touch them better than direct communication.”
- Ren Jie
Exhibition launch images courtesy of The Godown KL.
The videos and folding book will form part of a Salon de Refusés at the National Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth, August 2022.
Colliding ideas through art, illustration and poetry, Hadron Press is a new micro-publisher, which launched at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff as part of Paci & Glynn’s Self Help Show 17-28 May 2022. See Self Help Show
Our first publication, Self Help I(s)land is an illustrated playscript and collection of poems, following a pair of characters shipwrecked on a strange island, based partly on Shakespeare's The Tempest.
The book accompanies Self Help Show , asking where to seek help in challenging times, reflecting upon themes of loss and isolation, and how to read, taking a sideways look at the pros and cons of self-help books.
“One of the most intriguing, dynamic, clever books I have now on my shelf.” Menna Elfyn, on Self-Help (I)sland.
Signed Limited edition of 100, £12:00 + P&P. Second edition (2023) £10.00 + P&P. DM/contact us via email for details.
Founding editors Chris Glynn and Luca Paci.
Twitter: @HadronPress
Why ‘Hadron’? Adopting the image of a large scale particle accelerator, we are going in search of lost and hidden fragments of relationship, social affection and aesthetic in public life.
On beginning
”Writing requires commitment and recklessness. Take a line: it is the architecture of a thought. I sit humbly and wait for the words to come. Sometimes they pass like a fleeting bird. Sometimes I sit and wait for nothing. Yet this nothing is the place where words start. This nothing is where something begins.”
LP April 2022
Artist’s impression: how it will be
This network of disconnections
was issued to me directly
and was
unsolvable in real life.
There was more going on there
with others;
unsolvable issues
and I saw
where an audience begins
that the universe is wide.
CG March 2022
Texts from Self Help I(s)land project.
Reading from Self Help I(s)land and Tempo at
These 3 Streams arts festival, Llantwit Major. Photo: Megan Farr.
Using dream images for creative world-building.
The idea of a University of Wednesdays was discovered in 2014 in a tunnel beneath a Venn diagram. It is simply a way of making relational elements of ‘higher learning’ more widely available through informal exchange.
Connected to the University of Wednesdays is the New Library at Llantwit Major/Llanilltud Fawr, which opened in June 2021 in a mediaeval gatehouse on the site of Britain’s oldest centre of learning, founded by St Illtud in the 5th Century. Richard Parry has developed the library as a symbolic conversational space, bringing together writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin, Paul Tillich, John Rogerson, David Jones and others. Llanilltud Fawr has been described as the Iona of mainland Britain.
Images: Distance Learning with Luca Paci, Penarth, March 2020.
’The University of Wednesdays: a parable in progress’. Pamphlet available via email request.
Opening of The New Library, Llanilltud Fawr, June 2021, with bardic performers Mary-Anne Roberts and Bob Evans of Bragod.
Penrolio is Penarth’s annual Hen Galan (Old New Year) ritual, rolling the head of Bendigeidfran from the Mabinogi with the Mari Lwyd. Started 2018 with R M Parry and Ifor Davies. The events have been attended by hundreds. Other Mari Lwyds have joined us along the way. In 2023 a new wicker head was made by Lewis Prosser. In 2024 Luca Paci and I led the proceedings with musician Marc Elton. lllustrator Sue Shields made a cardboard Mari Lwyd and volunteers from the crowd read aloud from the ancient Welsh text.. As a coda to this year’s Penrolio, the head was burnt on a beach and the ashes will travel on to be buried in London. We trust someone will come forward with a new head for 2025.
In 2016-22 I joined Richard Parry as artistic co-director of Coleridge in Wales Ltd. We made a series of public works as the artists Parry & Glynn. These included carnival and festival events, antemasques, song recitals, publications, installations and work for exhibition. Parry and Glynn performed at cultural festivals, conferences, the National Museum of Wales and Senedd Cymru.