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Real Swansea
In his new book, Real Swansea, local poet Nigel Jenkins delves into the murky past of our `ugly, lovely town' (or pretty shitty city). Read the selected arts-related extracts below discussing public art on Quay Parade, the opening of The Dylan Thomas Centre, and how local guitar hero Brian Breeze became impaled upon a spike in Castle Square. For our city walls have ears, and Nigel Jenkins has been listening, intently.
QUAY PARADE
As a gateway to the city, Quay Parade conveys a mixed, inauspicious message, the vaunting ambition of the new Sail Bridge to your left undermined by the tin retail sheds of Parc Tawe and the passé glass pyramid (1990) of Plantasia (trying hard to be 'modern') to your right. They advertise a seam of philistinism embedded deep in Swansea's soul - a philistinism which, paradoxically, may have constituted for its artists the irritant grit that has cultured many a pearl. As you speed across the Tawe on the New Cut Bridge, you might miss David Backhouse's graceful sculpture Flying Figurehead (1989) in the bushes at the edge of Sainsbury's car park, but there's no escaping the bridgehead's louring gun-on-a-plinth on the opposite side of the road. This is intended not to take out unwelcome guests or fugitive natives but to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in Europe and to commemorate the 387 people who died in air raids in Swansea. Few would quarrel with that intention, but many have questioned the lumpish literalism of deploying an actual anti-aircraft gun as a memorial, rather than a work of art (see, by way of contrast, bombed Rotterdam's formidable Verwoeste Stad (The Razed City; 1946) by Ossip Zadkine). Its unveiling in 1995 sounded the death knell for Swansea's brief period as a European leader in the field of public art.
 THE DYLAN THOMAS CENTRE
Ty Llên itself was opened officially on St David's Day, 1995. The writers of Wales having been specifically excluded from having a say in what a national literature centre should be and do, it seemed a most unwriterly place, with its smartly uniformed staff and Hiltonesque ambience, and obvious design flaws, such as the cramped seating in the theatre and the miserly proportions of the (expensive) bar. In the self-consciously grand restaurant - so popular for
receptions that already people were calling Ty Llên 'the national wedding centre for Wales' - there were sandwiches, municipal vinegar, and speeches, including one from an ungracious, bearded SWAGerer who proposed that if writers couldn't take over the running of Ty Llên they should blow it up.
 A writer did eventually take over the Dylan Thomas Centre's varied and lively literary programme, which continues to this day. The Plymouth-born poet Dave Woolley (1958) came to Swansea to join the Year of Literature team, and has been here ever since - no doubt the festival's greatest (if only) living legacy. In addition to staging literary and musical events, including the annual Dylan Thomas Festival, the building houses a major, and permanent,Dylan Thomas exhibition, an art gallery, a restaurant and a cosy bookshop café. It plays a crucial role in the artistic life of Swansea and has done much to persuade more sceptical, prim or official elements to embrace Dylan Thomas as a son of Swansea deserving of celebration (if only because the 'Dylan Thomas effect' is said to be worth £3.6m a year to Swansea). Even the council's white van fleet is in on the action, with a range of Dylan Thomas quotations, in his handwriting, on the sides of over two hundred vehicles.
CASTLE SQUARE
It was some years after the Post decamped to Adelaide Street before the castle grounds were cleared of clutter and grassed. In the late 70s, there were still some lean-to sheds towards the rear of the site and an iron-spiked gate to keep people out. This posed a challenge one night to the guitarist Brian Breeze who, lurching up Wind Street after a gig at the Coach, decided he'd like to have a look around the castle. He  wobbled his woozy way to the top of the gate, but as he was stepping over the spikes at the top and onto the asbestos roof of one of the lean-tos, the gate started to swing away and he lost his footing. As he fell, a spike ripped through his trouser-leg and lodged firmly in the seat of his trousers, leaving Brian hanging there, waving his arms and legs, but otherwise immovably impaled. He jiggled vigorously up and down in the hope that his weight would tear the trousers - which it did, and he plummeted to the ground. Deciding to take home a souvenir of the evening, he relieved the castle wall of about half a hundredweight of its fabric. The semi-trouserless guitarist with a block of stone in his arms managed to find a taxi to take him home to Clase, where he presented his sleeping and unimpressed wife Mabe with her medieval takeaway. They kept the 'Breeze block' in their fireplace for years. But one night, during a party to celebrate Brian's appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test, their chunk of Swansea castle went missing and has not been heard of since.
BONYMAEN
We head finally for Cefn Road, for Spencer [Davis] to tell me the story of the three-inch scar on the palm of his right hand. Ever on the look-out for means of raising cash, he had a paper round, he grew and sold lettuces, he went spud-bashing in Gower - and then there was the pop bottle scam. At Hopkins's shop in Cefn Road - closed now, but the shuttered serving hatch
is still there - you could get money back on your empty bottles. The returned empties were stored in a yard at the rear, and Spencer would tiptoe round the back, help himself to an armful of bottles, carry them round to the hatch at the front - and get 'his' money back. All went well until one day his trespassing was rumbled by a yapping dog. He ran for the nearest wall, went to grip the top of it with his right hand - and gashed his palm on the jagged glass that had been set into the wall top. The wound should probably have been stitched, but he dared not tell his parents what had happened, and it was left to heal unaided.
Real Swansea is out to buy now from all good bookstores and the Seren website, priced £9.99
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Making Space for Art
From the inspired musings of Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space to the recent CIRIC Artists' Symposium and exhibition Marking Space, it is clear that our interpretations and emotional reactions to space and place, whether domestic, work or personal are inherent factors for creativity. Yet in Swansea, a building site of new development, will ventures like Gwalia's redevelopment of The Old Police Station do enough good to balance current arts-funding-belt-tightening and the lack of good, affordable studio space for the city's artists?
Written by: SUSIE WILD
 The CIRIC/ Mission Gallery group show Marking Space, running until 12 June, invited artists to develop multidisciplinary work exploring “the complex relationships and interpretations of space/place, boundaries and belonging.” The results examined notions of space along a broad spectrum from gender and personal to domestic and architectural. The way we create, from words across a page to nesting within our homes. As an artist, one needs the space to dream, to conjure up ideas and theories, to carry out the art forms, and then later to display these thoughts and processes to others. So why, in a city that is breeding new buildings like bunnies - albeit predominantly the flats and office blocks of SA1 - and full of empty spaces from shop fronts to warehouses, we are still apparently struggling to find affordable places to create, perform and exhibit as well as to house the homeless? The Palace may be too far gone to restore, but there are plenty of other spaces lying bored and bare. Why can't they be used? Especially as it is no secret that investment in and celebration of the arts is essential to keeping a city thriving?
 There are some new developments that suggest movements heading in the right direction. Just as the old telephone exchange has been transformed into the stylish Environment Centre, and the former seaman's chapel became Mission Gallery (both under the capable lead of award-winning architect, Robin Campbell) now The Old Police Station has been redeveloped and renamed Llys Glas, and will soon be open for business. Although project manager - Gwalia - still remains fairly tight-lipped about it's plans for the building, Platform can reveal that Framework are among those that have secured art studios in the new “Art Centre” within, which, according to the website will also include “exhibition space for artists.” The whole building is also apparently “aimed at creating a wider visual space for Arts in the community.” However the artists they seem to want to let into their space are those that will not make any mess, as rumours abound about how getting paint on the new floors will simply not be allowed, making the spaces less studio and more neat office spaces for graphic designers. Those wishing to find out more regardless, including PDF floor plans of the spaces, which are available from this summer, should visit: www.gwalia.com/main.cfm?Type=NAT.
(Editors note: Gwalia Housing have been in touch and they say that the rumours about only letting 'neat and tidy' artists rent the spaces are untrue and they will be setting the record straight on this website soon).
How the future pans out for the creative landscape of Swansea depends mainly upon the attitude and co-operation of organisations. Financially, the arts are already feeling the Olympic Pinch, at opening after opening one hears the heartfelt appeals for sponsorship, for businesses to invest, certainly not helped by the credit crunch of Britain's current cash crisis. CIRIC could be a prime example of this, an organisation set up in 2005 to assist artists with the development of their creative practices, all services which they have offered for free until now -like digital printing, laser cutting, decal printing and video production and editing facilities -- will now be charged for as their European funding will soon run out, and cannot be renewed.
 There is a natural fear that we will see a detrimental shift in the arts world as independent spaces and collectives are forced to put on safer, more commercial shows to guarantee audience and revenue; creativity caged. Whenever such groups are brought together to discuss what the city needs in terms of building provisions for the arts, be it at the Liberty Stadium council-led fiasco or the more recent Swansea Arts Forum Trust session, people call out for an Arts Centre, for rehearsal and performance spaces, for more investment in and support of the arts. Unfortunately it seems that there simply isn't the money around for a massive new arts centre that will meet many of these needs to appear anytime soon; at least not all under the one roof.
Instead of Swansea's Chapter or Arnolfini, in an attempt to bring forward some positives, we should make the best use of the spaces we already have: Taliesin Arts Centre, The Dylan Thomas Centre, The Grand's Arts Wing and The Dylan Thomas Theatre all have decent performance, discussion and screening spaces available. Beyond this there are bars and cafes, the larger club venues of Monkey, Mambo and Sin City, function rooms above pubs, within Conservative clubs, rugby clubs, social clubs, college, school and church halls, the art galleries and the new Art Triangle (Glynn Vivian, Dynevnor, Elysium), the Environment Centre, the all-new Patti Pavilion, and the aforementioned Llys Glas; the list goes on and on.
Independents may well need to pull together; to pool resources, staff, volunteers, spaces and funding bids, in order to survive. To remember that collaboration, communication and co-operation, in these cases, are not crimes. Volcano Theatre Company, although lucky enough not to be suffering as some with funding cuts, are well versed in subverting spaces for performance, from the Lord Mayor's Mansion House to Marc Rees' latest performance Threshold, viewed from the stage of Taliesin looking out into the stalls. Similarly LOCWS rethought the use of space for exhibiting art across the city. It is such thinking outside the box that could pave a viable way forward for the arts in these troubled times.
Related links:
Bristol's Arnolfini
CIRIC Marking Space exhibition
Read an excerpt from The Poetics of Space on Amazon
Making Space for Culture(s) in Boomtown: Some Alternative Futures for Development, Ownership and Participation in Leeds City Centre
LOCWS International
Gwalia article on The Old Police Station development
Volcano Theatre
Swansea Theatre Arts Register (STAR) provide a comprehensive list of rehearsal, performance and recording spaces across the city
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Q&A: Marc Rees
By: Susie Wild
Image of Marc Rees, Photo by: Chris George
Unknown Pleasures is a series of exciting experiments in theatre by Volcano Theatre Company, Taliesin Arts Centre and Swansea Metropolitan University; bringing together Wales' finest artists and its best emerging talents. For the first experiment, Threshold, local performance artist Marc Rees was asked to take the helm. Platform caught up with him after the first show at Taliesin to talk about this new multi-media piece and life in general.
How did Threshold evolve?
“Volcano invited me to do the first work for Unknown Pleasures, the inaugural event. They said that it would be an opportunity to direct, I'm not a director more a collaborator, but I was flattered and intrigued. I had known Volcano but never worked with them before, so it was a great opportunity.
“As I am from Swansea and all of my work is autobiographical I thought it would be good to do something Swansea-specific for the theme, and The Palace just seemed to be an obvious choice for me. It is such an evocative space, and so sad that it is in such a state of decay and neglect today, 120 years after opening. I wanted to highlight the place, to draw some attention back to it. Plus the building represents more personal things to me - my sexual awakening. It was a right of passage for me to cross that threshold at 16.”
Marc Rees “is one of Wales's leading exponents of contemporary performance and installation. His innovative interdisciplinary artworks are known for their flamboyant, humorous and often extreme interpretations of history, culture and personal experience.” Read the full Theatre Wales entry on Marc Rees here.
The Palace Theatre opened in Swansea in 1888. It survived the blitz, became a temporary morgue, was the first venue in Wales to screen a silent movie, served as the setting of an Iris Gower trilogy and became a notorious gay nightclub in the early 80s. A former Music Hall and Variety Theatre, it has played host to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Lillie Langtry and Marie Lloyd. It is now sadly derelict and decaying.
You don't usually work with groups, would you do so again?
“No, well I don't think so, not like this. I enjoyed the challenge of creating this piece, but it was just that, a challenge. I was given five weeks for rehearsal and initially I hadn't a clue what to do with that time. Usually my pieces are more immediate than that, more organic and I m used to working by myself or with just one collaborator.
“Originally I wanted to do an architectural intervention within space that you walk around at The Palace, an installation, but instead I had Volcano's parameters to take into consideration - that the work and the audience must both be on the stage at Taliesin, that I must use students from Swansea Met and Volcano's designer. Luckily I had four great performers, John Rowley and Wendy Houstoun both with vast experience, and the students, Stephen Donnelly and Rachel Walsh who had to hit the ground running from Day One. I had to work out how to accommodate four other people into something that essentially stems from an autographical experience. I found that I couldn't do this without placing myself back into the piece, to allow it all to make sense for me and the audience.”
How was it returning to the interior space of The Palace after all this time?
“Oh, so many memories were triggered, which made it both exciting and sad. The building is in such a terrible state of decay, I felt that it could fall down at ay time.”
The start of Threshold features a film created by Newport Film School students, that tours the interior of The Palace building as it is now, complete with cobwebbed bar and disco balls. How important is it to you for your work to involve different mediums?
“It is very important for me to have film in my performances. Gloria Days was a hybrid of film, installation and performance and Threshold is another hybrid, there is a connection in that way.”
Talk me through the choreography…
“In the first piece, where the four performers are dressed in Edwardian clothing with disco balls over their heads, the choreography is based upon the chorus girls in the old film footage we show of the last performance, Folly, in The Palace in it's guise as a theatre and music hall. It is a poignant choice because the plot of Folly sees former chorus girls returning to the theatre where they used to perform the day before it is demolished. It resonates on so many levels. The footage is also really camp, and the girls look petrified, much like I had been as a teen.”
Are you a stickler for details?
“Absolutely, always! There are so many aspects that I consider that the audience probably wouldn't realise or notice. With Threshold the clothes the performers wear for the club scenes are all actually mine from that time; the benches they sit on are from the 1880s, the decade The Palace opened, the cushions all have architectural drawings of the space, and even tiny Threshold labels. I'm always like this with my work, perhaps obsessively.”
You've had a longstanding relationship with Taliesin Arts Centre as a space for performance and the creation of new work. What do you think of other art spaces in Swansea?
“I really only know Taliesin, who have been good to me, I've been performing pieces there for 17 years now, and so I haven't needed to seek out other places. I see that they are redeveloping the Patti, but I know nobody will take over The Palace as it will cost millions. I don't think that there are enough good facilities for small scale, more experimental work. If there were the programme of events we might see could be more interesting, however Volcano does try to do something different and that it to be admired.”
Where did your creative career begin?
“I studied art, visual and performing arts that is, in Brighton 20 years ago. Then I moved onto musical theatre and dance, and through all my work in Europe with different choreographers, such as Angela Guerreiro, Thomas Lehmen and Tanz Compagnie Rubato, a mode of creating evolved. I think I took a more conceptual approach and by marrying this with autobiography and other mediums my work becomes more accessible. People may watch one of my pieces and not realise that this is art, but they can enjoy it and be interested.”
Which of your performances are you most proud of?
“That's a hard one… I guess the most recent, Gloria Days, is the one I am very proud of - it took such a long time, going to Anglesey and working with the community there to develop a vocabulary which I used in the piece, and going to London to Covent Garden to get the elaborate headdress fitted, that was very exciting. Plus I'm taking it to Berlin for the International Dance Festival in August, the best in the world. I'm also proud of the piece I created with my parents - Tombola Domestica - it was very personal, intimate and private and my Dad joined me to sing in the work. He died last year so I hold a lot of attachment to that piece.”
Which piece of Performance Art do you wish you'd thought of first?
“I was thinking of this the other day, the most interesting piece I've seen for a while was Reproduction by a woman called Esther in Berlin. It is a very slow and hypnotic piece in which a group of girls dressed as men, with moustaches and male clothing pair up and get into positions of the karma sutra. You know that you are looking at women dressed as men, but issues of gender really blur. I really enjoyed, it was beautifully done and inspired.”
What does art mean to you?
“What does art mean to me? I can only answer that on a personal level, really, I mean it is everything but my life revolves around art watching, art making, and creating, and without it I'd be lost. It sounds ridiculous to say `art is my life', but it is incredibly important, obviously and without I'd be… a shell.” He laughs.
What's next?
“We're touring Threshold this week and then I'll be touring Gloria Days, and I've also got a big commission in Northern Spain, a site-specific piece in former orphanage, I'm curating, and there will be six Welsh artists and five or six Spanish…that's it mainly, but it's actually quite a lot.”
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