Helen Acklam on Instagram

h.a.pics

Whilst listening to tonight’s session with @a_bp

Whilst listening to tonight’s session with @a_bprojects and @xiayzhang - talking about shame! #shameshame #findingaform

#faultlines #outscapesandinscapes #whatitistobeth

#faultlines #outscapesandinscapes
#whatitistobethere

#faultlines . . . . . . . . . #helenacklam #land

#faultlines
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#helenacklam
#landscape #outscape #inscape
#findingaform
#whatitistobethere

#faultline . . . . . . . #helenacklam #landscape

#faultline
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#helenacklam
#landscape #outscape #inscape
#findingaform
#whatitistobethere

Like a birth certificate #ffaldaucolliery @britgeo

Like a birth certificate #ffaldaucolliery @britgeosurvey

Very big thanks to Rhian Kendall - a geologist at

Very big thanks to Rhian Kendall - a geologist at the Cardiff office of @britgeosurvey (British Geology Survey) for my crash course in reading seam maps of the South Wales coalfields.. not sure how much I will hang onto, but she made it accessible and so interesting.

Loved the language of it - strain, stress, fall, tension - and the way these shapes and layers settle into being.
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#helenacklam
#landscape #outscape #inscape
#findingaform
#whatitistobethere

Recording our walk in the Garw Valley with @prerna

Recording our walk in the Garw Valley with @prerna_printmaker (instructions included!!) @gina_baum_snakesholestudio and @dmorgandavies #friendship #whatitistobethere

Excited that ‘mute’ will be part of The Wales

Excited that ‘mute’ will be part of The Wales Contemporary 2022, developed by the Waterfront Gallery with support from the Welsh Government.

The exhibition will begin at @waterfront_gallery in October and continue to @oxotowerwharf in November.

Thank you to the judges, Rebecca Salter, Morfudd Bevan, Jill Piercy @rebeccasalterra
@morfuddbevan
This is especially meaningful as I have spent this year delving into ‘what it is to be there’ in the Garw Valley, Sth Wales.

#whatitistobethere #artsinwales #helenacklam #shameshame #walescontemporary2022 #parkerharrisco

I took an impression from a hole in a wall, built

I took an impression from a hole in a wall, built to commemorate the stories and people of the Garw Valley. The buff stones are decorated with a name or picture & some are missing, reclaimed perhaps.

The air clay picked up the marks and debris & it felt intimate, like I’d slipped into someone’s nest.
If all goes to plan 🤞, I’m going to replace with a brick, made from the wild clay we collected last week from a nearby farm.

This has triggered lots of thoughts about commemoration and memorial.
There’ll be no fan-fare and I’m hoping no-one will notice.

Translation
Welsh: GARW
English: coarse; gnarled; gruff; harsh; hirsute; inclement; primitive; raucous; raw; rough; rude; rugged; uncouth

#welshresidency with @gina_baum_snakesholestudio @prerna_printmaker

© @prerna_printmaker - image 1
#depression #impression #postcolonialwales #findingaform #whatitistobethere #helenacklam

#portrait #mantlepiece Stone, clay, air clay

#portrait #mantlepiece
Stone, clay, air clay

#changinglandscapes When Thatcher closed the coll

#changinglandscapes
When Thatcher closed the collieries in the 80’s she insisted that all the material associated with the pits - the machinery & structures, metal and brick - were put down the shafts; hidden in plain sight.
Lakes, like this one, and vivid green fields now mark the spot . #whatitistobethere with @prerna_printmaker & @gina_baum_snakes hole studio & @dmorgandavies
#welshresidency
#helenacklam

#whatitistobethere #garwvalley #welshresidency #j

#whatitistobethere
#garwvalley
#welshresidency
#justanotherbrickinthewall

Posted @withregram • @gina_baum_snakesholestudio

Posted @withregram • @gina_baum_snakesholestudio

Big 🙏🏽 to this one.. and also to @prerna_printmaker for a week of talking, making, idea sharing, experimenting, eating, crying, laughing & letting off steam! But big-time for their calm support when things didn’t go so well..

This week was a part of my project ‘what it is to be there’, funded by Arts Council England.
‘There’ is the Garw Valley, South Wales.

My aim was to absorb, notice, engage with this place ‘here and now ’, whilst watching time shapeshift around my memories of ‘there and then’ as a teenager.

We experienced lots of the warmth & friendship that this valley offers and we also experienced the shame-inducing bigotry, racism & misogyny that’s here too. I’ll write some more about these experiences when I’ve had a chance to think how.. probably helped by @_lizzie_lloyd_ !

All part of #whatitistobethere
@aceagrams #dycp

#excitedtoseewherethistakesus
@gina_baum_snakesholestudio @prerna_printmaker
#embodiedpresence
#friendship #shameshame

Repost from @gina_baum_snakesholestudio
Big 🙏🏽 to these two - @gina_baum_snakesholestudio & @prerna_printmaker for being with me on this research week! This was a major part of my Ace (DYCP) funded project to explore ‘what it is to be here’.

HERE is the Garw - an ex-mining valley in South Wales.
My aim for the week was to be in this place as it is now, holding the memories of the place I experienced as a teenager when it was dominated by the mining industry and the culture of the place & time.

We walked, talked, laughed, cried, made, played and got angry. We experienced the amazing warmth and friendliness of the place .. and also the awful aspects of racism, fear, bigotry and misuse of power still active there.
I will post more about this when I find my way to talk about it.
Thanks also to @dmorgandavies who joined us for a day.. and added riches to the conversation.
#whatitistobethere

I cannot thank these two enough - we talked, walke

I cannot thank these two enough - we talked, walked, experimented, played, cried and laughed and everything in between. But most of all they were with me when I unexpectedly faced everything I was there to repair. The mis-use of power to weaken, silence, shame, control; the racism & bigotry - this from white Welsh artists to another white Welsh artist.
More on that when I’ve figured a way to talk about it. …
@gina_baum_snakesholestudio and @prerna_printmaker
#whatitistobethere

I’ve set up something on @verotruesocial - not s

I’ve set up something on @verotruesocial - not sure what I’m doing! #newanddifferent
But think I might have sent official requests to be ‘besties’ when I only needed to follow!
Don’t panic - not a marriage proposal! find me here (Helen acklam)and follow. LETS GIVE IT A GO!
#werenottakingthisshitnomore @meta

Thanks @dmorgandavies for the photo.. and for shar

Thanks @dmorgandavies for the photo.. and for sharing the day with us. @gina_baum_snakesholestudio @prerna_printmaker - Digby doesn’t do @instagram .. not since @meta changes!!

#whatitistobethere

#whatitistobethere

Experiments… 🍀 #whatitistobethere

Experiments… 🍀
#whatitistobethere

Walking the hills with @gina_baum_snakesholestudio

Walking the hills with @gina_baum_snakesholestudio and @prerna_printmaker
#whatitistobethere

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