Locws International

Locws International is an artist led organisation that works with UK-based and international artists to create temporary visual arts projects for public and accessible spaces across the city of Swansea in south Wales, UK.

In each project, place or context is integral to the work and, through the use of a broad variety of locations, Locws International provides a unique platform in which a wide audience can experience contemporary art.

Through its innovative programme, Locws International provides new opportunities for artists and operates within a flexible and supportive framework to enable the production of progressive and dynamic work.

Partnerships are key to Locws International events and the organisation strives to collaborate with a broad range of artists, people, venues and businesses to develop and maximize creative opportunities across the city.


30 August 2010

Light Drawing Workshops

Free and Open to All

15th September
Waterfront Community Church from 6.30 – 8.30pm

21st September
St Thomas Community Primary School from 6.30 – 8.30pm

lightdrawing

lightdrawing

lightdrawing

Draw with Light!
Make your own stunning light drawings. Draw with light in our darkened room with cameras and download your images from www.tracinglight.co.uk. Light drawing workshops are an opportunity to express yourself through light. You will make LED throwies and learn how to do light drawings. Tell stories with light drawing photographs. Share your images online or print off at home. Be part of an Art Across The City project that explores the history of your local community. You will work with artist, Tine Bech and photographers and be part of a large public art project. The drawings are to be the inspiration for a bold, colourful sculpture for the SA1 area.

Workshop Dates & locations:

15th September
Waterfront Community Church from 6.30 – 8.30pm

21st September
St Thomas Community Primary School from 6.30 – 8.30pm

Free refreshments at both workshops

Children age 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult

For more information and to take part please call 01792 468979 or email info@artacrossthecity.com

This project is part of the SA1 Swansea Waterfront Public Art Programme and in partnership with the GSP Partnership.


lightdrawing

lightdrawing

lightdrawing

lightdrawing


27 August 2010

Walking Between Craters

Simon Whitehead
Locws Projects 2010/2

2010 marks 70 years since the beginning of the devastating bombing of Swansea during the Second World War and most notably the Three Nights Blitz of February 1941. A new public art project commissioned by Swansea arts charity Locws International, marks this traumatic part of the city’s history by exploring the bomb craters left across the city and collating stories of peoples’ experiences and memories of them.

luftwaffe

Artist Simon Whitehead has used aerial photographs of the city taken by the Luftwaffe in the 1940’s that reveal the extent of the craters spread out across the city and on Kilvey Hill. He has found that many of the craters still exist and many of these are hidden, have been colonised by plant life and overgrown, filled in, built over, played in, or have acquired other uses.

“I am making a hand-drawn walkers map and guide to the existent and disappeared craters across the city and hope to interview local people who remember the bombing, those who can recall stories from older family members and the many people who have played in, visited or used the craters in different ways”, said Simon Whitehead. “I regard the project as a form of memorial, revealing how the craters have been incorporated into Swansea’s folklore and how people’s relationships to them have transformed the original trauma of the bombings”.

If you have any stories relating to this part of Swansea’s history then we would like to hear from you. We will be collecting these local stories on August 31st where you can meet Simon and share your memories. If you are interested in taking part then please contact Locws International on 01792 468979.

‘Walking Between Craters’ is part of a series of artworks commissioned by Locws International for the 2010 Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts. The project runs from 8th – 31st October and maps will be available from the National Waterfront Museum and Swansea Museum.


23 August 2010

Locws Projects 2010/2

Locws Projects 2010/2
8 October – 31 October 2010
Tine Bech
Rebecca Spooner
Simon Whitehead


To coincide with the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts, Locws International has commissioned a series of new temporary artworks that reflect the people, culture, heritage and landscape of Swansea.

Danish artist Tine Bech has worked with the communities of St. Thomas, Grenfell Park and Port Tennant as part of the SA1 Swansea Waterfront Art Programme to develop an artwork that reflects the area’s connection to the docks; Rebecca Spooner has responded to the landscape of the city creating rich new film work and Simon Whitehead marks 70 years since the three-nights blitz of 1940 in an interactive journey.

In addition to these new artworks we will also be re-showing Jackie Chettur’s artwork inspired by the Swansea Capehorners: ‘…it is 89 days this morning since we left the Mumbles Head’, that was created for Locws Projects 2010/1 and originally shown at the Civic Centre in April and May 2010.

Information and maps will be available from the National Waterfront Museum in September


22 August 2010

Education

In conjunction with Arts in Education, City and County of Swansea, Locws International has established an ongoing educational programme called Locws Schools that sees schools from the Swansea area take part in site-specific arts projects. The projects are run by artist David Marchant and use Locws International events as inspiration.

pentrehafod

Locws International events illustrate a broad range of contemporary artwork and are unique in that each of the artworks is made as a direct response to an aspect of Swansea’s culture, heritage, architecture or people. The artworks, created by international and Welsh artists using a variety of mediums, provide a unique educational opportunity and have inspired students to create some very interesting and exciting responses. Locws Schools starts with a guided tour of the artworks at which David Marchant presents some of the thinking behind the artworks and explains the ideas and processes of making the work. The second part of the project sees students create their own site specific art projects inspired by what they have seen and learned, presented at each school in Locws Schools exhibitions.

Locws Schools is open to all schools in the Swansea area. For more information please contact Administrative Support for the Arts on 01792 562667 or email locws@locwsinternational.com

Locws Schools: Guided Tours
The guided tours provide an educational and exciting visual stimuli for students to respond to and to question. Artist David Marchant encourages students‚ to make responses to the artworks while they attempt to unravel what the work means to themselves and what they think the artist is trying to achieve. Each work is carefully explained and the students are encouraged to think of how it could inpsire them to create a piece of their own work within their school or college environment. With the inspiration gained from the tours, the students are expected to produce a response to a particular artwork or artworks and during the course of the first day, students set themselves a brief which they research and investigate by day two of the project, David Marchant’s visit to their school or college.

Locws Schools: Artworks
On day two of Locws Schools, David Marchant works closely with the students to create their own site-specific projects at their school. These artworks are then displayed within the school and emulate the principles of the Locws International event that has inspired them.

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Daniel James Community School

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Penyrheol Primary School


21 August 2010

LOCWS INTERNATIONAL: PRESS RELEASE 17.08.10

New Contemporary Artworks for Swansea
Tine Bech, Jackie Chettur, Rebecca Spooner, Simon Whitehead
8th – 31st October 2010


A series of new public art projects commissioned by Swansea arts charity Locws International, are set to be staged during the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts in October 2010. Each of the temporary projects celebrate the rich and diverse history of the city and explore aspects of the city’s culture.

Danish artist Tine Bech has been working with the communities of St Thomas, Grenfell Park and Port Tennant as part of the SA1 Swansea Waterfront Art Programme to develop an artwork that reflects the area’s rich maritime history. She is working with local people through a series of ‘Light Drawing’ workshops to explore the history and memories of the local community. These drawings are to be the inspiration for a bold, colourful sculpture for the SA1 area that represents the local communities’ relationship with this historic area of Swansea.

Read more ….


17 August 2010

Tine Bech

Tine Bech was born in Denmark and now lives and works in London.

bech

Bech’s practice is concerned with how we engage with our immediate environment. The artwork is intentionally accessible through the use of location and materials and often ‘hums and reacts with a playful anthropomorphic life that is liable to take you by surprise. Projects have centred on the use of interactive electronics and location tracking technology, urban spaces and environmental elements such as gravity, water, sound and light to develop spaces where participations, play, and experiences of immersion take place.

bech

Recent Exhibitions and Projects: SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, TouchPoint: The Haptic Exchange Between Digits, LA, USA, 2010; Hub: National Centre for Craft & Design, Safe to Touch, Lincolnshire, UK, 2009; Open Studio Gallery, Visiting Artist Exhibition, Toronto, Canada, 2009; Farnham Creates, Tracing Light, UK, 2008


9 August 2010

Rebecca Spooner

Rebecca Spooner lives and works in Cardiff.

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Rebecca Spooner’s rich installations combine film, photography, projection and found objects. Her work explores the romanticism of nature, in particular the symbolism of animals and the landscape, and their capacity to convey unconscious desires and sensual metaphors.

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Recent Exhibitions: 2010 Do I Have to Paint You a Picture? Morgan Arcade, Cardiff; 2009 State of the Estate, Penpont Manor, Brecon, Powys; 2009 Open Empty Spaces, Hole In The Wall, site-specific, Cardiff; 2008 The White Stag, g39, Cardiff; 2008 6&7, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno


9 August 2010