Ordnance Survey 117

Venues
Royal International Pavilion, Llangollen	22 Jul 2002 - 22 Aug 2002
Bersham Industrial Heritage Centre	6 Sep 2003 - 19 Oct 2003
Rhyl Library Arts Centre	10 Jan 2003 - 7 Feb 2004
Daniel Owen Centre, Mold	15 Feb 2004 - 18 Mar 2004
Grosvenor Museum and Gallery, Chester	1 May 2004 - 27 June 2004

We return to the map theme again after a number of years. When we last used the theme it was 'OS 109' rather than 'OS 117'. The addition of 8 to the number could be a metaphor for the enormous changes which have taken place to this area. Despite this, three of us have chosen to reflect on the historical presence in our locations. Each place is still the sum of its past and present.

Members

Lynne Bebb

I was born and grew up on the very edge of map reference 117. My work is the product of memory, of places and experiences, translated into shape, form, colour and texture. Distance in time and space has transformed the memories so that the work has become abstract so that a more universal interpretation is now possible.

David Cooper

In 1975, shortly after coming to Wrexham to teach on the Foundation Course, I contributed to a three-person exhibition at the Arts Centre. One painting consisted of four map references; four locations that were of personal significance. The theme of this current exhibition allows me the opportunity to revisit these places, twenty-seven years on!

Richard Hore

The process of archaeological excavation has always intrigued me. The fascination of the earth being removed methodically and the expectation of revealing historical information and artefacts. The drawings recording the excavation have an interesting abstract quality to them and the appreciation of the three-dimensional jigsaw of what is revealed is a thought-provoking challenge. I have tried to treat what I have observed on 'digs' in a decorative graphic way.

Margaret Tietze

I have chosen Erddig with a particular focus on its history and connection with Elihu Yale, the famous Welsh American who foreclosed on Joshua Edisbury's Erddig mortgage! Yale was associated with Wales, India and London, and I am interested in the background of these areas. The servants at Erddig are well documented. Photographs and poetry are vivid records of the important role they played in the family and I have used these as a resource of some of the pieces. Some pieces are an imaginative record of the peeling back of the layers of time and history.

Boris Tietze

Chester has a long and important history. It is now a place where the evidence of this is mixed with the contemporary. Tourism has become a vital source of funding and the historical elements - Roman, Tudor and Victorian - are of immense interest to visitors. The representation of Chester in coloured postcards and tourist literature provides a resource for my works. I have contrasted this 'modern' technicolour version with images from the past - some fairly recent, and some from Chester's origins.