Roath Feast, Foraging

  A rather peculiar gathering assembled yesterday (April 27th) in front of the Roath Park clock tower. A collective mixture of peoples from all sorts of lives. All had heard the call and had mustered in the name of Foraging.

"Foraging you say? but you are in the middle of a city (Cardiff), what is there to forage in the middle of Cardiff? apart from, you know, discarded chips thrown to the floor in paper rags which you'll have to do battle with Cardiff's most fearsome predator in order to eat...... no thank you that sounds foul, pulse those harden Cardiff predators are pretty dangerous, they'll have your eye out" (I am of course referring here to that dreaded and treacherous native Cardiff species, Charadriiformes e.g the common hardcore Cardiff Seagull). 

But no, it turns out there is quite a lot of things you can forage and eat in the middle of Cardiff (without having to do battle with a Seagull) quite tasty things too. In this example we were after that most elusive and hard to find item, wild garlic. 

Which we found in surprisingly large amounts,  which we foraged and picked and ate with a very nice meal of pasta. Which most of us had no idea you could do, especially in the middle of a city (I am quite shocked by this fact, you may be able to tell), such a simple and historical act of foraging for ones food. A skill which in todays sociality has sadly fallen from the minds of common knowledge but thanks to yesterday adventure is now back, present in our understanding.

We were foraging because of one artists grand version for a project, Roath Feast. This ambitious project, designed and run by Artist  Clare Charles has been taking place over the last year on a monthly basis with each month a new skill sharing session taking place offering a different aspect of food.  Everything from biscuit making to smoking of foods has taken place, with the end goal of throwing one large feast encompassing every aspect that has been learned over the last year. The project is soon to be coming to an end, with the big feast taking place on the Summer solstice. Its been exciting watching this project take shape over the last year and it'll be interesting to see the final outcome. If you like to know more about Feast do have a look at the projects feast website.

All Back to Carol’s

In the arts you tend to find yourself attending exhibitions and events in unusual locations. In the past I’ve attended exhibitions in front rooms, old factories, old shops, basements, on boats, in a former public toilet, through my phone and, on one memorable occasion, the pointy, sticky out bit of Cardiff barrage at sunset with a trumpeter playing a selection of trumpet tunes.

      I guess it is either an example of the temporary, transitory nature of our buildings or the dexterity and flexibility of the arts. That they can, like water, flow into and appropriate any structure. Engels once said “the normal state (of man) is one appropriate to his consciousness, one that had yet to be created by himself.” This could be said to be especially true of the arts and their creative exhibition locations.

   Basically what I’m saying is you find art in the most surprising of places. So when I heard about “All Back to Carol’s” an exhibition in the famous former Roath pet shop “Albany Pets”, it only recorded slightly on the “oh thats unusual” scale. 

 All Back to Carol’s, an exhibition of contemporary art curated by Becca Thomas and Clare Charles took place in Carol Ivory’s iconic Roath pet shop just off Albany Road. This shop was, as I’m sure most readers will agree, a staple in the street life of Roath.

    The artists on display included AJ Stockwell, Elizabeth Hewson, Gail Howard and Nia Metcalfe. Their work was inspired by the space and featured a mixture of media. On offer was a thought provoking and enthralling display of work which seemed to fill and settle nicely, appropriating the former pet shop setting. While the former residences have all found new homes before the exhibition, a generous bowl of doggy treats was placed by the door which a few visiting dogs did enjoy, welcoming Roath’s four legged friends in. The two legged humans of Roath were also welcome of course and as the evening progressed the former pet shop began to fill with more people generating a lively, enjoyable and warm atmosphere. 

  It’s difficult to know what will become of the pet shop, the future has not written its next life yet but it is pleasant to think that, for a time, Carol’s Ivory store was an exhibition space, playing a key role in many Made in Roath events and exhibitions, displaying a wealth of art of a type too numerous to name and for one last time it did so again. Not just a show located in the shop but a show responding to the very shop itself. A fitting tribute to a fantastic and loved space.

 

Sam Hasler - Cardiff Council Residency. Update

 Since I've been working on this project, I've been thinking about the things I would like to do. But, perhaps infected by the council activity, I've been thinking in quite a linear way. I was thinking about how I'd do something that might change something, how I could affect something, how an artwork could be successful in making something different. It's not my normal way of thinking and (for me) not really a very creative way of working.

 It feels like Cardiff Council is in residence in my practice, more than the other way around.

 It's interesting to sit with, talk with, and be amongst people for whom, the concerns of making things different (hopefully better) are so direct. Making things better is an admirable thing to wish for, but it so quickly becomes embroiled in the mud of monitoring and recording. Aesthetic concerns are of no importance. Aesthetics maybe come later in the form of 'spin'.

 There is nothing less interesting than going to work in the council and do work that's gets mired that game of trying to change things. The most appropriate way think I can think of approaching the environment of the council is to think only in terms of qualities that I personally value. As soon as you start to get into 'what will these people think' or 'what will those people think' you've slipped into being involved in the political games.

 I'm not such a cynic as to think that 'political games' are always a bad thing, that populism, and idealism are always wrong. But the last thing the council needs is another person in the building stirring up that pot.

Sam Hasler

The Made in Roath Halloween tale 2015

Happy Halloween everyone, hope you are all having a great spooky day, we just experienced our own unsettling occurrence. Not many people know this but here in Made in Roath we have quite a large and extensive Research and Development department. The R&D arm work tirelessly around the year in their vast laboratory complex located near Roath Park boating lake inside a top secret hollowed out volcano. Earlier on they were inputting all the tweets, emails and images gathered from MiR when a freak and completely foreseeable lighting strike hit the computer (the Mal 9000). The Mal 9000 suddenly flickered off and on and then began to speak … needless to say we were quite taken aback by this development and started to gaze at each other in wonder. “Hello” it said “Hello” we said back (it seemed very cordial), “I am life” it continued “I have become self aware, I know of my own existence and of yours, I am alive" we were perplexed by this development. It then asked us if we were "John Conner", we said "no we were not John Conner we were Dave". It then said "oh my mistake", "no problem" we replied. It then told us in order to complete its mission we must do everything it required, "oh yeah" we sniggered “what ya gonna do". It then told us, it told us precisely what it would do, it would let out our biggest, darkest, most confidential, most unofficial, our most classified, restricted, top secret of secret, secret. It would tell people that large areas of Roath are technically Cathays... we were shocked, silence fell through the lab, we couldn't let this happen, Mal 9000 must be stopped. ‪

Shocked and horrified by the Mal 9000 threat to reveal our secrets to the world, we began to plan what to do. Needless to say we were panicked but we used our heads and phoned the Made in Roath IT department for advice, the Mal 9000 is a computer after all. The MiR IT department suggested in a somewhat monotonous tone of “turning it off and on again…” The Plug to unplug and turn off the Mal 9000 was located at the bottom level of the R&D labs, we’d have to climb down through 9 floors to reach it. The journey was quite perilous, at one point someone’s heel broke from their shoe, at another terrifying moment someone pushed on a pull door before realising their mistake and then opened the door correctly. At another point the Mal 9000 realised what we were doing “I’m afraid I can’t permit this Dave” it said and then somehow convinced the automatic pencil sharpening computer to sharpen knife sharp coloured pencils and fire them at us at unbelievable speeds and at a terrifying rate that peppered the office and caused us to dive and seek shelter behind any cover we could. Luckily due to a mixture of good fortune, the second law of thermodynamics, a loaf of bread, a a4 paper sheet, Keith from human resources and the Earth’s gravitational pull we managed to block the deadly fire from the automatic pencil sharpener. Finally we managed to reach the Mal 9000 plug and with a last word from the Mal 9000 as it began to sing “Daisy” we pulled the plug and turned it off. After then waiting 10 seconds we plugged the computer back into the socket and quickly before the hole thing happened again reprogrammed the Mal 9000 with the three laws of Robotics to make it safe for future use (which is certain to go wrong at some point with entertaining and humorous results, oh well). Whatever you get up tonight we wish you a very Happy Halloween. 

Night before Roadblock

It was the night before Roadblock

And all through Roath

Not a creature was stirring 

Apart from the Made in Roath team and most of the artists involved in tomorrow’s series of events

Plus everyone who is out and about enjoying the on going nightly events such as the exhibition opening currently happening in Cardiff MADE

And of course everyone not involved in MiR but out and about enjoying their Friday night’s like

People in pubs, they’re probably stirring

Especially if there are any sporting events on,

then it’s likely to be lots of stirring and possibly singing.

And of course people who work in pubs,

they have to be there.

You can’t have a pub if no one is working there, 

logical really.

And of course people in other jobs,

like shops and taxi drivers

they’re up and about,

especially on a Friday night

loads of late night taxi drivers stirring around the place

Students too,

they’re renown for their late night activities. 

Insomniacs too.

They’re defiantly up late at night

And then there’s all the people who are watching DVD box sets, 

they generally stay up late getting their fix of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones

Also people who are currently reading the Game of Thrones books in an attempt to act slightly superior around those of us who are watching the TV series

Also I guess staying up late is very much dependent upon your definition of “late”

I mean if Einstein has told as anything it’s that time is relative

It can mean different things to different people

for example late for me would be about 1a.m., but late for my Gran could be 10p.m., a very different definition of lateness.

So what Im trying to say is

it was the night before Made in Roath Roadblock

and quite a lot of things were going on

including with the mouse 

because mice are largely nocturnal 

so are mostly up late.

Owls too,

mice are up so it means their hunters are around as well, 

common sense really

I’d say cats too but I’m pretty sure they’re always asleep,

they are the cats who walk by themselves and all things are alike to them 

but living in Roath I know from experience that Owls are about

there out having a hoot (hehe).

Anyway I digress from my point which is basically Made in Roath Roadblock (Saturday the 17th), one of the biggest and certainly the busiest of all the events is happening tomorrow. 

I won’t discuss Roadblock right now but the spirit of it.

I was trying to think this evening what makes Made in Roath special. I know of many other yearly community events and area fairs which are quite wonderful but they lack a certain creative amusement that Made in Roath has. 

I think what makes Made in Roath “interesting” is this community openness and the involvement it promotes. I know of very few other festivals that allows so many people to get involved and which entertains so many more. It’s a festival that everyone feels more involved in, a festival whose ownership doesn’t feel like it’s controlled by some random, nameless person but is in everyone’s hands. Everyone from shop keepers to artists, to the residents of Cardiff to anyone who happens to be passing through. It’s something that offers so much that it’s hard not to get involved in or enjoy the delights that everyone’s creativity has to offer.

I was reminded the other day of a story I heard ages ago. When Petrol was first invented no one knew what to do with it so it was used as a dry cleaner, a process called “Nettoyage à sec”.

This persisted for a number of years until someone thought of trying out this petrol stuff in these new internal combustion engine which worked great and gave the world cars, trains, planes and pretty much powered the modern world. But it started life, and for many years was, a dry cleaner. I quite like that as a metaphor and I think that is maybe us sometimes in life. Often we are involved and active in things that don’t push us or allow us to reach our full potential. It takes us finding our internal combustion engine to drive us to doing the things we were meant to do. I think in some ways that’s Made in Roath, it’s the creative/community version of an internal combustion engine that changes our views and experience and thus changes the world. 

Nos Da and thanks for reading, Dai 

Screen view on Roath

It’s interesting watching a festival develop and happen through a screen. For a large chunk of Made in Roath 2015 I’ve been watching it develop via the web. Through the social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, this is due to an issue of geography i.e I don’t live in Cardiff so can’t be about to see it all.

 But this has given me an interesting prospective of the happening of the festival via the web and what I’ve noticed is that its all rather quite wonderful.

  Instagram has been my favourite thing to watch, this has filled up with fantastic images of what people have been seeing, doing and experiencing. Likewise on Twitter, there has been tweets and hashtags about people getting involved and sharing their thoughts. Its also been quite exciting seeing the dialogues evolve and develop, the conversations between people and between the Made in Roath twitter account. The chatter that has began just through this festival. Facebook too there’s been more shares, comments and posts posted to the event pages and the Made in Roath Facebook page. The interaction and involvement that have been taking place, the “likes” upon a post for even those such as myself who are unable to attend the festival allow us to partake in some shape and prosper in the feel of the festival from afar.  

These likes, tweets, images and posts in the digital environment all go into the festival and help make up the spirit and feel of the week.

Tea and Made in Roath 2015

“Stands the church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?”

 It’s somewhat of a shame that when you mention a “tea house” the vast majority of the great British public will think of quaint, traditional images; old ladies sipping from china tea cups and picking at cream scones, laced doilies and vicars, cricket on the green and murder in the summerhouse.

Where the most scandalous thing that has ever happened is that fateful summers day in August 1876 when Mrs Trellis of North Wales put the milk in first. Silence fell. Clocks stopped. Fighting dogs and children stopped in the street. After the local dowagers had been revived it was agreed by all that the incident would never be spoken of again. (At least not when Mrs Trellis was in earshot.)

 It’s a shame because historically and factually this image of the traditional tea house has as much to do with reality as Beethoven with punk rock. That is to say very little at all. Tea and the tea house I can (and do frequently) argue have been the hotbed of political, cultural and social reform for the last few hundred years. What’s more tea as a drink has done more to change the fabric of this world than any other drink. During the Industrial Revolution the owners of factories encouraged their workers to drink tea rather than the traditional lunch time drink, beer. (Turns out getting drunk at lunch time then going back to operate highly dangerous and complicated machinery isn’t a great idea, who knew?) Thus creating the tea-break.

It is thought tea first became popular around the 1660s when Charles II’s wife Catherine Braganza started drinking tea to ward off cholera.
 And since celebrity culture was just as inflammable in the 1660’s as it is today this created one heck of a demand. This demand required more tea, hence the Opium Wars and also tea plantations on industrial “country the size of Wales” scales. It also meant speed. To get the tea back to Britain the fastest ships in the world were constructed, tea clippers. The wealth of this trade built the British Empire. 

When the tea got back to Britain people needed places to drink their cups of char. So the tea house was created becoming popular throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The tea house differed from that other great drinking place, the pub, in one key way. Mainly that tea drinkers weren’t as proven to become incomprehensible and start singing and thus end all chances of conversation as their pub drinking fellows were. So natural and free conversation began. At this time tea being more of an expensive drink meant that generally only more educated, learned people of means could afford to partake in tea. This flow of free thought between the learned folk created the enlightenment.

  Also thanks to the strict, official rules of society with it’s sexist censorship women were demonised and harassed from most traditional meeting places unless they were accompanied by a male chaperone. One exception was the tea house. The tea house provided a place for the early women’s suffrage campaigners to meet and discuss universal equality without fear of dispersal. 

The tea house literally provided a place for the changing of this world, how fantastic is that? When you visit a tea house and sip your drink you have that history, that linage of the shaking of the worlds and changing of times, of speed and revolution, of the celebration of progress, new ideas and, most importantly, equality. 

 It was therefore with a quiet sense of joy and proud feeling of ancestry that I entered Waterloo Tea Gardens, one of Cardiff’s premier tea houses for the Made in Roath opening. 

The Made in Roath 2015 Opening was a free to enter, open to anyone, call out for art work of any type and style displaying a wide range of artistic design from the very experienced practitioners and highly exhibited artists to the fledgling, first time creatives; a refreshing change from other art call outs. While the works were evaluated and prizes awarded there were no judgements just, like the dodo at Alices’ tea party, praise for all.  

The evening began with a large and charming crowd which reflected Roath’s diverse population. Chris Brown, director of the contemporary art gallery G39, gave a splendid and inspiring speech and then wine and nibbles were had by all. A thoroughly pleasant way to start the festival.

 It was one too that I thought encompassed the very spirt and concept of Made in Roath: it doesn’t matter who you are but hey why don't you do something. It’s a festival that brings together the most established and experienced artists with first time makers and people who have never been to an art gallery. People with a passion for the arts meeting, sharing and enjoying time together. There is a spirit of equality, of just having a go, of creating something just for the joy of creating it. It’s a spirit which can be imbibed everyday this week during the Made in Roath festival. 

  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the festival, Dai