A 23 year old moving image artist from the Nantlle Valley has won the 2018 Cardiff National Eisteddfod Young Artist’s Scholarship.
The £1,500 scholarship was presented to Gweni Llwyd to enable her to continue her studies at a recognised art school or college or to attend masterclasses. As well as having her work displayed at this year’s Lle Celf, the artist will also be invited to exhibit at the Conwy County National Eisteddfod next year.
Said Karen MacKinnon on behalf of the selectors, “Gweni Llwyd is a challenging young artist with her finger firmly on the pulse of today’s world and we very much wanted to support her as she moves forward with her explorations. It is as if she is attempting to make sense of and curate the mass of information we all wade through each day to create new meanings and pathways to different ways of seeing.
Through her video works she bombards us with a mass of seemingly unrelated images and narratives from our digital age. Instruction manuals, pictures of pets and other animals, fluffy things, insects, visceral moments, tropes of masculinity and femininity set with and against one another.”
Gweni Llwyd, who now lives in Cardiff, aims to use the money to develop her skills in dealing with moving images.
“I am inspired by memories and search open archives to collect images, video clips and GIFs to use with my own video, photography and sound work,” said the artist. “Treating video almost as a glue, I try to curate digital artefacts to create abstract narratives.”
Gweni Llwyd graduated in Fine Art from the Cardiff School of Art and Design (Cardiff Metropolitan University) last year and went ahead later in the year to win the NOVA Young Artist Prize.
Website: www.gwenillwyd.com
The Cardiff Young Artists Scholarship is given in memory of Aneirin and Mari Talfan Davies by Elinor and Geraint.