I’r Byw // Pip Woolf a Kirstin Claxton // Sain Ffagan // Hafal

by | Jan 19, 2018 | Ir Byw

I’r Byw // Pip Woolf a Kirstin Claxton // Sain Ffagan // Hafal
Mi fuodd I’r Byw yn ddigon ffodus i gael mynediad i’r stordy ar fore’r gweithdy yn Sain Ffagan, gyda’r grŵp yn sgetshio wrth glywed hanes y cadeiriau gan Sioned Williams, Prif Guradur Hanes Modern yr amgueddfa. 

Fel gwneuthurwr dodrefn ac un sydd wedi creu cadair Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, mae casgliad cadeiriau eisteddfod Sain Ffagan yn wirioneddol werth eu gweld. Ro’n i wedi bod yno o’r blaen wrth gwrs, a’r gadair syml o dderw ar gyfer y grŵp wedi ei hysbrydoli yn rhannol gan y casgliad.

I’r Byw was fortunate enough to gain entry to the storage on the morning of the workshop at St Fagans, with the group sketching whilst listening to the history of the chairs related by Sioned Williams, the museum’s Chief Curator of Modern History. 

As a furniture-maker and one who’s created a National Eisteddfod Chair, the collection of eisteddfod chairs at St Fagans is truly something to behold. I had been there before of course, and the simple oak chair for the group was partly inspired by the collection.

Y tro yma roeddwn i yno yng nghwmni grŵp, gyda’r aelodau yn cynnwys unigolion sy’n cael eu cefnogi gan Hafal, yr elusen iechyd meddwl sydd gyda safle wirfoddoli yn Sain Ffagan, yn ogystal ag arlunydd rhannol ddall a’i chi tywys – i gyd yn cydweithio dan arweiniad yr artistiaid Pip Woolf a Kirstin Claxton.

Y syniad o groesholi dodrefn oedd man cychwyn y sesiwn.

Roedd Pip a Kirsty yn awyddus i orchuddio’r gadair a chael y grŵp i’w harchwilio trwy ddefnyddio’r synhwyrau – wedi’r edrych, y clywed a’r sgetsio yn y storfa, dyna wedyn gyffwrdd trwy’r gorchudd tyvex (sy’n cael ei ddefnyddio i storio dodrefn yng nghasgliad yr amgueddfa). Drwy wneud hyn roedd argraffiadau o edrychiad y gadair yn cael eu creu yn llygad y meddwl heb erioed ei gweld.

This time I was there in the company of a group whose members included individuals being supported by Hafal, the mental health charity with a volunteer base at St Fagans, as well as a partially sighted artist and her guide dog – all working together and led by the artists Pip Woolf and Kirstin Claxton.

The idea of interrogating furniture was the starting point for the session.

Pip and Kirsty were eager to cover the chair and to get the group to examine it through using their senses – after the looking, the listening and sketching in the storage, came touching through the tyvex cover (used to store furniture in the museum’s collection). By doing this, impressions of the chair’s appearance were created in the mind’s eye without ever having seen it.

Wedyn, ar ôl creu cadeiriau clai wedi eu seilio ar eu hargraffiadau o’r gadair, a sesiwn o “sgwennu otomatig”, trowyd sylw’r grŵp yn ôl at y gadair ei hun a rhwygwyd y tyvex oddi arni. 

Sut fyddai’r grŵp am ei newid? Dyna oedd y cwestiwn, ac i ddechrau doeddent ddim am ei newid o gwbl! Wedi ail-edrych ac ail-drafod canlyniadau’r sgetshio, y sesiwn gyffwrdd, y modelau clai a’r sgwennu otomatig aethpwyd ati i glymu, gwifro ac incio – gan roi cysgodion ôl traul byw ar y gadair. Dyma ei throi felly yn rhyw hen wrthrych allasai fod wedi ei ddarganfod, a’r syniad y gallai dodrefnyn sgleiniog newydd rhyw ddydd, gyda lwc , fod yn hen ddarn hirhoedlog gyda’i hanes a’i stori ei hun i’w hadrodd.

After then creating chairs of clay based on their impressions of the actual chair, and an “automatic writing” session, the group’s focus was turned back to the chair itself and the tyvex was ripped away.

How would the group want to change it? That was the question, and to start with they didn’t want to change it at all! After revisiting and reconsidering the results of the sketching, the touch session, the clay models and the automatic writing, they set to knotting, wire-work and inking – and placing life’s shadowy wear marks on the chair. Thus turning it into some old object that might have been found, with the idea that a completely newly-minted furniture piece could some day, with luck, become an old long-lived piece with its own history and tale to tell.