AJ Stockwell – The Place That Knew Them Knows Them No More Forever | 25th March – 2nd April 2016

Preview Friday 25^th March 2016 – 7pm

Exhibition continues until 2nd April

Open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5pm

Artist Talk Saturday 2nd April, 2pm

Admission Free

SHE: the curator, current guardian of the object.

THE MUSEUM: the site of the object in its present state.

THE FACTORY: original site of the object, no longer exists.

THE OBJECT: unknown.

It started here, on the banks of the river between Black Pill and White Rock, the Factory, its legacy and demise. Where men and women carved an industry of ‘white gold’ into the city’s history. Producing artefacts – objects designed for an elevated society.

To eat, drink and contemplate, these are all legitimate human activities in which these objects served their function. Taking their place in the rituals of daily life.

The ‘Copperopolis’ that preceded the Factory left a toxic legacy, marked in the ground of Kilvey. Rejected by society this industry disbanded, never to return. In its place the Factory rose, a new and bright future presented.

Nothing now remains of the Factory, its people lost to time but solidified in objects. Their material weight redistributed, fragmented, deconstructed and reconstructed. She was invited by the Museum, tasked with curating their collection, invited to research and present this lost ‘material’ culture.

Fragments, the glittering shards of the Object, at some point valued then destroyed. What could this be? What is its function? Why when so many survived was this destroyed, unhandled, thrown to the slag-heap? These questions punctuate a loss, the need to fill a space, to make sense of what could have been.

AJ Stockwell is an artist based in South-Wales.

With thanks to: Arts Council Wales, elysiumgallery, Ben Borthwick, Richard Bowers, Mike Cousin, Elaine Davies, Peter J Davies, Sean Edwards, Thomas Goddard, Caitlin Jenkins, Elin Mererydd, Kathy Talbot, Katherine Thorogood (voiceover) and Nantgarw Chinaworks,