Rhian Berryman
‘The blackened face of the collier, this iconic image has dominated our culture and our history for more than a century, shaping the way we live and how we are perceived. It has been revered and resented, loved and even loathed but it will never again dominate our landscape.’
My work is largely influenced by my late grandfather, who had worked in the South Wales coalfield for 40 years. Having interviewed him to gain inspiration for my practice I’d began to learn how he felt about the industry and listen to the stories he’d picked up after 40 years in the trade. It was these stories that inspired the narratives for my woodcuts, and subsequent to his death late last year encouraged me to research the industrialisation of South Wales and draw inspiration from artists of the twentieth century that used the landscapes and communities of the South Wales coalfield as their main focus. The process of my work is important to my subject as the procedure to create it is quite laborious, carving my image from the materials at hand as the miners carved fuel from the ground.
www.rhianart.tumblr.com
[email protected]
My work is largely influenced by my late grandfather, who had worked in the South Wales coalfield for 40 years. Having interviewed him to gain inspiration for my practice I’d began to learn how he felt about the industry and listen to the stories he’d picked up after 40 years in the trade. It was these stories that inspired the narratives for my woodcuts, and subsequent to his death late last year encouraged me to research the industrialisation of South Wales and draw inspiration from artists of the twentieth century that used the landscapes and communities of the South Wales coalfield as their main focus. The process of my work is important to my subject as the procedure to create it is quite laborious, carving my image from the materials at hand as the miners carved fuel from the ground.
www.rhianart.tumblr.com
[email protected]