Back to Better

I am an author and artist. I am not a full-time politician or government official. I have no easy-fix solutions... but wouldn't it be lovely if the 'economy' simply collapsed and became nonviable, so we were forced to find another way of coexisting based on mutual care and respect for each other and all aspects of our natural environment?

We created money, and the resulting economy was a way of helping society run smoothly. It was there to serve us, but now it seems we are its slaves, expected to make sacrifices that risk our lives and even 'life on Earth' in order to save the unsustainable 'economy'. This makes no sound sense.

One step away from such economic slavery would be to introduce a functional guaranteed basic income, as a first step in disassembling our money-driven economy and replacing it with a creative human-driven 'green' economy. As the nations of the world consider global recovery, we all need to re-think our priorities. Now would seem an ideal time to 're-boot' and do this.

Environmental recovery is essential.

Never 'Back to Normal' 

Only 'Back to Better' is acceptable 

#BackToBetter 

to build a future for all life on Earth

Unus Multorum 2020 Online Festival

Plas Bodfa, based on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, is hosting a series of brave and exciting arts initiatives.

Last year, I was fortunate to be selected for the inaugural 'artists takeover' under the banner of Sui Generis - an ambitious project that brought more than 60 international artists together to respond to the location that has been many things including a family home, a steakhouse, a care home, a tapestry studio with visitor centre, and is now in transition once more into a family home with attached studios and arts centre!

Participants from across Europe, Australia and the Americas all contributed some amazingly varied work and Sui Generis was listed among the Top 10 art events in Wales for 2019.

My two, linked contributions were, In Lieu (of All We Are) - a text-based installation in one of the several bathrooms, and Corridraw: Escape Route, which featured large-scale gestural writing, drawn directly onto the walls of the passageways, and brought together concepts I have been exploring in the Writing to Escape and 360 series.

This year, artist-instigator-curator Julie Upmeyer decided to do something even bigger that would involve more than 100 creatives. This 2020 event was titled Unus Multorum and followed a similar, installation-driven format, whilst integrating the launch for 'Plas Bodfa Objects' - a selection of exclusive artists' multiples.

Due to the lock-down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the way that the art was to be revealed to the public had to be re-imagined. So, instead of an 'open-house' approach scheduled for April-May, the exhibition has morphed into an extended global arts festival with a series of virtual events including regular uploads of online galleries that showcase the work already installed and some of the work-in-progress that was intended for inclusion. There is also a programme of monthly video live-steams, each linked by a broad theme and featuring some of the artists talking about their work.

Along with Fiona Davies (joining us from Australia), Sian Hughes and duo Stanley & Bould, I was a guest for the first live-stream in May, with the theme of 'House', and here I talk about my contributions to the Unus Multorum 2020 Festival which are Corridraw: Continuum - an extension to Escape Route already near-complete when lock-down was brought in for Wales, and the Plas Bodfa edition of 10 new Cicorcs - the lucky cork sea-dogs...


click to play (my section begins at 50 minutes in this recorded live video)

Unus Multorum 2020

monthly themes  

May 

House

June 

Exhibition

July 

Freedom

August

Sustenance