24 February – 20th March
Spanning a period from the 1970s to the 1990s, this fascinating photographic exhibition documents the people and communities of Tiger Bay through a period of great change.
Inside Out is an exhibition of black and white photographs of Butetown by local brothers Anthony and Simon Campbell. Spanning a period from the 1970s to the 1990s, the focus is on the people who make up the community.
Motivated by the predominance of outsiders’ images of the area formerly known as Tiger Bay. The brothers sought to redress the balance. Inside Out documents a period of great physical change and celebrates the continuity of spirit and the communities that lived through it. The people depicted are friends, family and local characters that are named in the captions. Images from different years are juxtaposed; for example, a photo of the first Bute Carnival in the mid-1970s next to one from the 1990s, creating a timeless and authentic portrait of a community.
Simon Campbell was born in 1956. He has always stayed close to his roots in Cardiff and his creative and artistic bent has been deeply emersed within his own community. He was a founder member of Butetown Photography Group and the Black Film and Video Workshop in Wales, which produced several films that were screened at film festivals around the UK. When Simon and a group of other like-minded locals set up the Cultural and Educational Training Centre in the Bay, creativity was high on the agenda. As well as providing social and legal advice, they ran classes in photography, pottery, art, sewing, woodworking, batik, cookery and baskettry. Simon’s creative drive led him to a new vocation in the late 1990s, designing and crafting stone-set silver jewellery at his shop, Debris, in Pontcanna, Cardiff.
Anthony Campbell was born in 1955 and his passions for photography and music are well illustrated in the exhibition. Many of his pictures centre on the pubs and clubs of the Bay where he played bass guitar with local soul band Messiah and always had his camera on hand at gigs to capture the mood of the audience whenever there was a break in the music.
After studying art at Cardiff College of Art in the early 1970s, Anthony pursued a graphic design course at Newport College of Art. Since leaving Cardiff in 1980 his career has spanned everything from corporate design to animation for feature films such as Hackers and Event Horizon. He currently works as a freelance designer in London.
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This exhibition is curated by Cardiff Umbrella. Cardiff Umbrella is an artist-run collective and project space in Cardiff’s Capitol Shopping Centre that works to promote artists of all abilities and backgrounds.
