JON POUNTNEY

WALES AT THE SEASIDE • CYMRU AR LAN Y MÔR

25|06 - 30|07| 2022

TEN is pleased to present a solo exhibition of photography by artist Jon Pountney

Themed on scenes of coastal Wales - from cinematic landscapes and familiar structures to ice cream vans and nostalgia-inducing tourists tat - we are transported to summer days at the seaside

Pountney’s lens captures the overlooked corners of these familiar settings, showing us ordinary human moments and pointing at the beauty of the mundane - all bathed in the extraordinary light his eye catches. Whether photographing chip forks, Victorian piers or Waltzers, his love for his subject is clear. This love, coupled with his familiarity with his content, translates into authentic storytelling

‘My seaside work developed organically from separate trips around Wales, for work and pleasure over many years, and I noticed different pictures began to group together as a cohesive whole. As an artist I’m fascinated by how the seaside can be seen as the quintessence of the British/Welsh experience, with its collection of lonely seaside resorts, coastal landscape and gaudy entertainment. The coast is a metaphorical and literal edge land, and it collects people and objects at the fringes of society; people who are maybe wanting to escape the clamour of conventionality, or looking to slow down and retire

Across the coastline of Wales is a dizzying mix of natural beauty, coastal war defences, wastelands and towns and villages. Some are set up as resorts; others are sleepy, quaint places without the touchstones that we apply to places like Barry Island, Rhyl, or Tenby. I am pulled in to this nostalgic confection which reminds me of growing up near Filey and Scarborough in the ‘80s and ‘90s

Seen from our family Mini in the early 1980’s, the view of the derelict Filey Butlins holiday park, with its empty pools and faded Art Deco grandeur, left an indelible mark on my imagination, as did the excitement of the colours and sounds of local amusement arcades. Maybe as Barbara Hepworth memorably put it, those vivid childhood experiences influence what I’m trying to describe today - ‘perhaps what one wants to say is formed in childhood and the rest of one’s life is spent trying to say it’. I know that all I felt during the early years of my life in Yorkshire is dynamic and constant in my life today’ - Jon Pountney

Arweinir ni ar daith i ddyddiau haf ar lan y môr gyda’r thema o olygfeydd arfordir Cymru - o dirweddau sinematig a strwythurau cyfarwydd i faniau hufen iâ a pethach twristiaid. Noda lens Pountney y corneli a caiff eu hanwybyddu, dangosa i ni fomentau cyffredin a phwyntia at brydferthwch y dydd-i-ddydd - a’r cyfan wedi’i ymdrochi yn y golau rhyfeddol y mae ei lygad yn ei ddal. Boed yn tynnu lluniau ffyrc sglodion, pierau Fictoraidd neu waltzer - mae ei gariad at ei destun yn amlwg. Mae'r cariad hwn, ynghyd â'i gynefindra â'i destun, yn trosi’n waith â chalon ddiffuant