Using various processes from printmaking, slip casting and working in bronze my composition is a visual poem mixing art with story telling.
I find allegories in my work everywhere through looking at the world around me, and listening to voices, I connect the past with the present.
The concept behind my composition is the visualisation of entrapment and control with the human longing to be free.
The Alhambra Palace in the Andalusian city of Granada, Spain, provided me with the inspiration for my work.
The pomegranate fruit bears the name of the city and in many legends represents fertility, with the ripe seeds the blood of life.
Whilst visiting the palace, the harem occupied my thoughts, with the beautiful room secluded away from men and strangers by means of screens. I viewed the screens as comparable to cages, with caged songbirds used as a metaphor of the women and girls who are trapped inside, a tradition that equates songbirds with the captive female spirit.
The fate of the women and songbirds are intertwined both chosen and treasured for their beauty and pleasure they provide. Dependant, and having no agency to be free, they are objectified and measured by the spectator for their beauty and their youth. I connect this with the existing objectification of the female.
Gan ddefnyddio gwahanol brosesau o wneud printiadau, castin slip a gweithio mewn efydd, mae fy ngwaith yn gerdd weledol yn cymysgu celf gydag adrodd stori.
Dw i’n dod o hyd i alegorïau yn fy ngwaith o nghwmpas i ymhobman ac wrth wrando ar leisiau dw i’n cysylltu’r gorffennol gyda’r presennol.
Y cysyniad tu ôl i fy ngwaith ydy delweddu caethiwed a rheolaeth a’r unigolyn yn ysu am fod yn rhydd,
Palas yr Alhambra yn ninas Granada yn Andalusia, Sbaen, ysbrydolodd y gwaith.
Enw ffrwyth y pomgranad ydy enw’r ddinas ac mewn llawer o chwedlau mae’n cynrychioli ffrwythlondeb a’r hadau aeddfed yw gwaed bywyd.
Tra’n ymweld â’r palas tynnwyd fy sylw at yr harem gyda sgriniau yn gwahanu’r ystafell hardd rhag y dynion a dieithriaid. I mi trosiad oedd y sgriniau a’r merched a’r menywod wedi’u trapio yno gan gaetsys adar cân, traddodiad sy’n cymharu adar ag ysbryd menywod caeth.
Mae tynged y menywod a’r adar cân wedi eu cydblethu ac wedi’u dewis a’u trysori am eu harddwch a’r pleser maen nhw’n ei ddarparu. Yn ddibynnol, a heb asiantaeth i fod yn rhydd, maen nhw’n cael eu gwrthrychu gan y gwyliwr a’u mesur am eu harddwch a’u hieuenctid. Rwyf i’n cysylltu hyn â gwrthrychu’r fenyw sydd eisoes yn bodoli.