Maria Elorza Saralegui

BA (Hons) Illustration

I use illustration as a research tool, playing with dualities to make sense of surrounding realities.

Sitting against the familiar background of debates about ‘post-truth’, ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ my work challenges the idea of one universal truth by exploring the variety, complexity, and diversity of truths experienced in everyday life. My investigation culminates in The Printed Word, an illustrated reportage publication. I find reportage illustration very interesting as it sits between journalistic practices, providing perhaps more subjective ways of portraying truth.

The work aims to offer a variety of perspectives and remind the viewer that a story can be constructed from many accounts, and reality perceived from many levels.

The result is a liminal landscape of delicate artist’s books arranged in conversation with each other. These books open an in-between space, leaving room for the unsaid, for potential conversations and for the viewer to find their own glimpses of truth.


Rwy’n defnyddio darlunio fel adnodd ymchwil, gan chwarae gyda deuoliaeth i wneud synnwyr o wirioneddau o’n hamgylch.

Ochr yn ochr â’r cefndir cyfarwydd o ddadleuon am ‘ôl-wirionedd’, ‘newyddion ffug’ a ‘ffeithiau amgen’ mae fy ngwaith yn herio’r syniad o un gwirionedd cyffredinol drwy archwilio amrywiaeth a chymhlethdod y gwirioneddau sy’n cael eu profi mewn bywyd bob dydd. Mae fy ymchwiliad yn gorffen gyda The Printed Word, cyhoeddiad sy’n croniclo gyda darluniau. Rwy’n credu bod croniclo trwy ddarluniau’n ddiddorol iawn gan ei fod yn eistedd rhwng arferion newyddiadurol, gan ddarparu ffyrdd mwy gwrthrychol o gyfleu’r gwirionedd efallai.

Mae’r gwaith yn ceisio cynnig amrywiaeth o safbwyntiau ac yn atgoffa’r gwyliwr y gellir creu stori o nifer o adroddiadau, ac y gellir canfod realiti ar sawl lefel.

Y canlyniad yw tirlun trothwyol o lyfrau cain artistiaid wedi’u trefnu mewn sgwrs â’i gilydd. Mae’r llyfrau hyn yn agor gofod rhyngol, yn gadael lle ar gyfer pethau heb eu dweud, ar gyfer sgyrsiau posibl ac i’r gwyliwr ganfod ei gipolygon ei hun ar y gwirionedd.

Other Exhibitors:

Megan Vest

Megan Vest

Image and text holds a significant value to my practice as an illustrator. Interpreting pre-existing narrative through my own visual language revives an appreciation for this relationship, as well as reanimating these texts. It is vital that we continue to acknowledge...

Daisy Osborne-Walsh

Daisy Osborne-Walsh

As an artist, I aim to be a positive agent for change and increase awareness on topics I find most important. My work is fuelled by my passion to shed light on social injustices, specifically effecting women. The topic basis of my work is often regarding sexual...

Chris Evans aka Queerbis

Chris Evans aka Queerbis

Queerbis is an Activist Illustrator who wants to change the world, while having some fun doing it. Their new design movement titled ‘Bis Design’ recognises society’s biased construction, and as a result gives the ‘power of bias’ back to anyone who is disadvantaged or...

Kodchamon Jermlae

Kodchamon Jermlae

As an artist, I tend to observe the environment I have been through, a consequence of feelings and opinions. The reality is that nothing and no one is perfect. One of the most common reasons for the creative block is the fear of imperfection. This has always been a...

Rosina Rooke

Rosina Rooke

A Cardiff based artist, originally from the Valleys, who focuses on the embrace of life of animate and inanimate objects and bringing a message to their meanings. Exhibited is Rosina Rooke’s latest project work, the decay of food over time. I specialise in a variety...

Rhiannon Griffiths

Rhiannon Griffiths

The Room of Empowerment is an immersive experience that is a thought-provoking assortment of painted fabrics, patterned wood and other multi-mediums, that removes the need of wordly constraits and thrusts you into the land of the fairytale. This mesmeric storybook...