Watch artists live at work at the Cardiff M.A.D.E gallery

Cardiff art graduates perform live at ‘ReLAY’ exhibition

Have you ever walked past Cardiff M.A.D.E [makers, musicians, artists, designer’s enterprise] on Lochaber Street in Roath and wondered what’s inside?

The intriguing artsy store is a community interest company that hosts monthly exhibitions and competitions and sells the most prestigious art pieces created by local emerging artists in the city; a place where locals and art lovers can browse and buy everything from handmade cards, to ceramics, t-shirts, paintings, and local produce.

The gallery director Zoë Gingell works relentlessly each month to seek out artists in Cardiff to feature their work in the upcoming gallery exhibitions. Zoë said, “We run an exhibition programme which changes every six weeks, with the emphasis on showcasing local artists to the Cardiff community and building the audience profi le up. We combine open calls to see who is out there, with curated group shows, and then solo exhibitions with emerging artists, as part of our role as mentors to develop and foster artist’s careers.”

ReLAY Exhibition

The current exhibition, ReLAY, has been in session since 2020. A lengthy project that has explored ‘joint language’, connecting four local artists who specialise in various art forms to work together collaboratively on the same pieces throughout the pandemic to create art that celebrates ingenuity and adaptation.

The four artists working on the project are Eden Dodd who specialises in fi ne art, before venturing into drawing; Mylo Elliott came from a graffi ti background and then went on to fi ne art. Mylo and Eden really enjoyed the work each was creating on an individual basis and decided to collaborate and work together, creating the ReLAY exhibition. as Caitlin Flood-Molyneux, specialises in abstract pieces, and Abi Birkinsaw works with “still life.” Abi enjoys painting what is around her in her domestic environment and includes a little humorous text in her art. Kitty and Abi joined forces and became the second half of the ReLAY project, designing art pieces together.

Zoë said, “The idea of this project was to push the artists out of their own comfort zones, into responding to fresh input laid down by their ReLAY art partner - facing new ground, quite literally. In that way creating avenues for them to look at their own work from a fresh perspective.”

“They decided to do a series of collaborative drawings.

by Kellie Williams

‘Axes’ by Dodd and Elliott

They would start on one each and rotate, continuously swapping in their pairs until the work was fi nished, so they kind of have a bit of a conversation through drawings,” she said.

The artists were hit with the pandemic and were forced out of the studio, leaving them to think outside of the box in order to fi nish the pieces together as part of Stage One of the project. Dodd and Elliott continued to work together by mailing the art pieces back and forth from Cardiff to Glasgow to continue the series collaboration.

The second Stage of the project took place in the Wales Millennium Centre, where the collaborative artists continued ReLAY, by designing, creating, and working on new pieces together to be presented as part of a bigger art exhibition at the WMC named, ‘Your Voice: An Exhibition.’

Stage 3

ReLAY Stage 3 is on show from 28 September 2021 till 30 October 2021 as a fi ve-week project. Stage 3 is all about live art and art in action, so the gallery welcomes members of the public to witness the artists in live Artist Eden Dodd said, “As a group of peers, there has been a clear appreciation for one another as both artists, and as people. Our work is shamanic, and the use of collaboration as a creative tool has opened up new avenues for exploration through this project, and our own practices. Sometimes, the process of an artist’s creative process can seem mystical and a little clandestine, so one of the most exciting parts of ReLAY Stage 3 is the ability for members of the public to come and experience us ‘in-situ,’ following along with the almost alchemical dialogues we share when working together.”

Gallery director Zoë said the series project came at a timely point, enabling connections during what has been a diffi cult year in isolation for everyone. The project has helped each of the four artists through the pandemic and has been a helping hand in the artist’s exploration into who they are as both artists and as people in their personal lives.

https://cardiff made.com/relay