Jerwood Solo Presentations artist Freya Dooley has been awarded funds for the Wales Venice 10 commission opportunity, alongside Kandace Siobhan Walker and Studio Cybi.
These commissions are led by Artes Mundi and sit alongside the Wales Venice 10 Fellowships announced in August. The commissions were offered to Welsh and Wales-based visual artists as support toward the development and production of a new project or artwork.
Each artist will receive £14,100 for material and production costs, plus additional access costs, with the commission contract lasting approximately six months. Regular studio support will be provided by Artes Mundi curatorial team as requested to contribute to the development of the commissions.
The selection panel included Catrin Owen, member of the Wales Venice advisory committee; Yuen Fong Ling, artist, curator, researcher and lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. Melissa Hinkin, Curator at Artes Mundi; and Liv Penrose Punnett, Assistant Curator at Artes Mundi. The panel was chaired by Nigel Prince, Director of Artes Mundi.
Freya Dooley
Freya Dooley’s practice incorporates writing, sound, moving image, installation, and performance. Rooted in close-range observations and unstable structures, her semi-fictional narratives and sonic compositions expand on subjects of work and replacement, social dynamics, and the harmonies and tensions between personal and collective experiences.
Freya was commissioned for the Jerwood Solo Presentations 2021, where she presented Temporary Commons, an immersive multi-channel sound installation that weaves dodgy plumbing, turbulent neighbours, bad weather, canned laughter, pets and etymology to describe experiences of connection, untethering, and futile attempts at control.
Studio Cybi
Studio Cybi is a curatorial duo based in Holyhead, comprised of artists Iwan Lewis and Rebecca Gould. Their output ranges from curating group exhibitions located in different sites, from local holy wells to their dining room.
Their collaborative practice also involves public commissions such as Llawn Festival; an outdoor artwork, ‘Tyrannical Regina’ about the links between Thatcher’s Neo-liberalism and the decline of communities in the North; to ‘Twmpath’, for Montez Press Radio.
Kandace Siobhan Walker
Kandace Siobhan Walker is a writer and artist of Canadian, Jamaican, Gullah-Geechee and Welsh heritage. She is an editor at bath magg. In 2021, she was an Eric Gregory Award winner and the winner of The White Review Poet’s Prize. Her debut poetry pamphlet Kaleido will be published in 2022 by Bad Betty Press.
Find Out More
Read about the commissions, here.
