Angela Davies
'(To the) Heart of the Matter'
‘(To the) Heart of the Matter' marks five years of evolution in the practice of Denbigh-based artist Angela Davies, a period shaped both by new motherhood and deepening ecological grief. This major exhibition brings together sculpture, moving image, and painting, including a site-responsive inquiry developed through collective story-gathering with communities around Pen Llŷn.
Davies’ work is guided by touch and emotion while paying close attention to the natural world around and within us. Central to this exhibition is the recurring presence of salt - a material that has long featured in her practice. Salt, at once organic and symbolic, holds the power to preserve, heal, and transform.
This new body of work draws on local histories of salt smuggling, law-breaking, and the secret networks and hidden caves once used for storing salt. These stories have been a starting point for the artist to further explore this substance as an organic sculptural material and have helped to form a visual language of hidden networks and quiet acts of resistance.
Through this process, the artist reveals her ongoing interest in the ways materials and forms can communicate with each other, highlighting the deep interconnection between our bodies and the environment. Informed by ecofeminist theory, the work reflects on environmental loss and longing - while also acknowledging the spaces we create in search of healing and solace.
At Galon y Gwir / (To the) Heart of the matter will continue to evolve throughout its duration, with performative interventions and gatherings further animating the materials across the exhibition spaces.
