Silencing evokes the destruction of culture under oppression while revealing the enduring resilience of human expression, accompanied by poetry readings reflecting on conflict, resistance, and hope.

The charred books and typewriters at the centre of Alison Lochhead’s exhibition, ‘Silencing’, powerfully evoke attempts by oppressive powers and autocracies to silence all forms of dissent. Viewers are confronted with images of almost complete cultural erasure. And yet the just perceptible letters and language which emerge amidst these charred residues of destruction suggest hope, however precarious. ‘Silencing’ witnesses people’s determination to reassert their voice in the face of ever more extreme political and religious suppression.  The fragility and yet substantiality of the ash and residue provide an image of the inextinguishable power of human expression.

Alongside the exhibition there will be evenings of poetry reading by Mike Jenkins, Patrick Jones, Abeer Ameer and David Ambrose. The chosen poetry reflecting on wars and conflicts, human resilience and hopes and dreams despite adversity and oppression.

The work made by Alison Lochhead reflects upon the memory of actions and experiences of people over time. The earth retains the marks made by humans and the memory of their presence and the injustices inflicted. Each person’s memory and experience is different and only parts remain, there is no ‘wholeness’, only fragments, but when different memories are pieced together they make a collective reflection and memory.

Alison’s work reflects on the injustices and traumas endured by humanity; referring to cross-cutting themes: devastated, abandoned and disrupted societies and lives, and chaotic journeys travelled; and the destruction of accumulated cultural and historical capital. Her work despairs of the ongoing horror of conflict and war and the seeming inability of humans to learn from previous experience.

Alison is a Member of Royal British Society of Sculptors (MRBS), 56 Group Wales, and a member of Sculpture Network.  Alison was selected to exhibit at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

EVENTS

Poets and Story Teller contributing to Alison Lochhead exhibition ‘SILENCING’

Mike Jenkins

Mike Jenkins lives in Merthyr Tydfil. His pamphlet of poems ‘For Gaza’ raised £500 for Medical Aid for Palestine. Latest books: ‘We not me / Ni nid fi’( Culture Matters, as editor) an anthology of radical poetry from Cymru & (with a cover image from Alison Lochhead) ‘He sings the broken cities’ (also Culture Matters).

The poems will be from my new book ‘He sings the broken cities’, with one more recent one in Welsh. They will focus especially on the children of Gaza, but also the complicity of Western governments. Surrounded by propaganda (with only a few exceptions) I feel compelled to identify with the oppressed people there and in the West Bank. Amidst all the statistics and also appalling silence, it’s vital to show the human side of suffering.

Patrick Jones

The silencing of the soul takes place on many levels- with religions, cults, relationships (especially intimate partners) organisations and governments – but the tactics are very similar- intimidation, fear, scapegoating, isolation, othering, gaslighting and pushing the individuals’ nervous systems into a flight or fight space where we can no longer think logically – where we begin to believe 2 plus 2 can really equal 5 and are frightened to believe otherwise-  and it is the artist’s role to speak out and challenge the official narrative and to question the received wisdom. As Arthur Miller said ” I write plays to make people feel less alone”

“The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.” ― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Poet playwright activist father. Works include  – Everything must go, Before I leave, Fuse/Fracture, Renegade Psalms, lyrics to James Dean Bradfield’s solo album Even in Exile (the life and times of Victor Jara) and a Constellation of Sorrows

Abeer Ameer

Abeer was born in Sunderland and lives in Cardiff. Abeer Ameer’s poems have appeared widely in journals including The Rialto, Magma, The Poetry Review and Poetry Wales.

Her debut poetry collection, Inhale/Exile (Seren) was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2022. Her poem, at least, is shortlisted for Best Single Poem for the Forward Prize 2024-2025.

She is currently working on her second poetry collection and regularly shares readings of poems on her YouTube channel.

David Ambrose

David Ambrose is a Welsh storyteller and one of the best-known promoters of storytelling, both in UK and internationally. The need to tell stories is characteristic of the majority of humanity. David Ambrose is a founder member of the Tales From Beyond The Border Storytelling Company.