I'll be the first to admit, this one has been a long one in the making. I think I sat down to write this short article around the time of the actual internment of Richard III. Then, there was the small matter of getting married, moving house, setting up a yurt and all those sorts of things. So this went from edit to edit, draft to draft, usually with about a month between - bear all that in mind. This is not quite as contemporary as it might have been, and it might be lacking a touch of the usual standards of fluidity, but I hope it makes for a provoking read nonetheless.
The events surrounding Richard III were staggering, in my eyes a crass exercise in marketing that benefited only those in a position to financially profit. As a heritage case study, it was fascinating, and will no doubt serve as a debating point for students of heritage, and those of the ethics on treatment of human remains, for a long time to come. The article can be found on the NOMOS website HERE, while the opening paragraph can be found below. British people do indulgence exceptionally well. Memories might still linger of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, where thousands of people lined the bank of the River Thames to watch £12m being spent on boats floating, and experienced true excitement when a barge rotated on the spot. Such reactions are intertwined with a celebrity-driven culture, which obsesses over the life and activities of British royals. In June, newspapers covered their front pages with pictures of the new royal baby, the latest idol to be the focus of national attention. Such indulgence is not, however, reserved for living British monarchs. We in the United Kingdom have now demonstrated an impressive capacity for mass expenditure and pageantry for long dead monarchs as well, even ones who have been, for years, denounced in popular culture. Take, for instance, the recent “reburial” of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral...
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So the Chartist Commission has reported in, and there is already a lot of buzz and excitement floating around the initial proposals. Well, there’s buzz and excitement if coverage in the South Wales Argus is anything to go by. Seemingly top of the Chartist Commission’s wish list, is what has been described as a “spectacular light and sound show”, a projection of images and sounds onto prominent buildings in the city centre. Now, the idea of projecting images is far from innovative, and light projections connected to historic buildings are common place around the world. Nevertheless, I don’t doubt the idea has some merit, and would certainly attract an audience for the one or two nights when it might be displayed, but that, it would appear, would be the extent of the display. Initial costs cited in the media put the display at a whopping £30,000, for a single (presumably) night time showing, and no more. Again, costs are costs, and are to be expected. However, I can’t help feel that the lack of permanence would be a real problem with this concept. Without wanting to get too distracted by revisiting the long since demolished Chartist mural, it is important to consider why this was important in the community. The Chartist mural was not an outstanding piece of artwork. Complex, technically impressive yes, but not something that the National Museum would lament having lost. Yet, artistic brilliance was not the point. The point of the importance of the Chartist mural was that is was part of the day to day life of hundreds, probably thousands of Newportonians. If you lived, worked in or traveled through Newport, for a generation you could not avoid a daily reminder of the Chartist story, why the rising took place, and the sacrifices made. That this part of daily life in Newport was lost was, I would argue, far more important than the content or style of the mural itself. A light show projection, while perhaps memorable for those who witness it, will be inherently limited to the day of the projection. This will have no impact on the passing footfall traffic passing through Newport on a day to day basis. To lose this, or fail to successfully replace this, would be a great shame. What public artwork that remains in Newport City centre, related to the Chartist movement, is far too abstract to fulfill the role, and have little impact on people’s understanding or awareness of the rising and its context. The general consensus seems to be that replicating the Chartist mural, as a concept, is dead in the water. Maybe so, but to replace the mural with a one off show, which by its very nature will be exclusive of many potential viewers, would be a poor substitute for the daily reminder which the mural provided. So, by all means, run with the sound and light show if needs be, it certainly has potential, but please can we collectively reject any notion that this would be a satisfactory long terms alternative to the Chartist mural – a one off budget breaking light show will simply fail to have the level of impact exerted by the mural. This long term impact on the community must be a priority. The perhaps less exciting, but the more permanent establishment of artwork along the length of Stow Hill, could be far more effective in the long term. Let’s hope that the impressive amount of money put aside for this important project, does not all vanish once the light show is switched off. After months of inactivity, I thought perhaps it worth a quick little update here. Life has been, well, exciting, busy, manic, at times overwhelming - all good things, but all happening at once, and so many things requiring attention all at the same time, meant that the Welshman Travels, well, he wasn't doing much in the way of traveling! So, a quick summary, and I suppose the biggy was getting married a little over a month ago, over the first weekend in June. It was an amazing occasion, and I am truly blessed to be sharing my life with such a kindred spirit. Our day was shared with some of the most wonderfully caring and generous people in the world, and I think we will always be able to reflect on how lucky we both were, to be able to enjoy our day with family, pets, loved ones, friends, and all in remarkably well timed sunshine (it had been raining heavily on the morning of the wedding, but it cleared up in the nick of time)! Having gotten married, we have rapidly moved out of Caerleon. Our home of five years is now due to be rented out, and we have relocated to our new, work in progress small holding, out in Monmouthshire... ...yes, that would be the other biggy, we are setting up a small holding. It's been slowish progress so far, but we are perhaps less than a month away from having our poultry set up, and maybe a month more before our first pigs move in, but it is all moving forwards, one way or another. While setting up our small holding, we have responded to the fact that livestock will need monitoring and moving in the future, so this little guy has become part of the picture as well... Throw into the mix as well, a brief whirlwind period lecturing with Cardiff University. As you know, I always need an outlet to talk about heritage, and following the demise of my role at the University of South Wales, Cardiff University were very good to me, providing a wonderful few months of teaching, where I could spout at length about heritage and all its merits and vices. I might not be teaching with them again for several months, but from what I have experienced so far, Cardiff Uni is a wonderful place to work, and, (if the Uni is listening and feeling generous) I'd love to do a little more there!
So - that, I suppose, is a summary of the big things to have happened of late. There has been plenty going on on the heritage front as well, with some really exciting projects in the making, but more on that in the weeks to come. For now, it's good to be back blogging, and to whoever keeps reading this (the analytics tell me there are a lot of you) thank you for you're patience - I hope to give you something different and new to read from now on! |
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