Phrame Wales during lockdown

07 Jul 2020, Posted by kate_mercer in #artsnewydd, Cardiff, Community, DIFFUSION 2019, Exhibitions, Out & About, PHRAME Collective, Social Media, Wales, Women

Last week, I published my June newsletter… a network edition! Not subscribed? >>> Read it here: http://ow.ly/vwXz50Ajtkn

The month’s highlights included Newport Community Artist Network’s meeting on Tuesday 30th June, #artsnewydd and some shout outs & opportunities with Phrame Wales.

It’s a frustrating time in the art sector at the moment – across all specialisms, venues are *QUITE RIGHTLY* closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Hand in hand with these closures go people’s financial security, jobs and their social networks. Personally, I have had work cancelled and numerous projects postponed indefinitely because cultural venues are currently unable to open ‘safely’ and / or in accordance with current Government guidelines re: COVID-19. However! One of the most positive things to come out of COVID-19 seems to have been a general resolve for altruism, solidarity and collective working. COVID-19 has shown us that it has never been more important for us all to work together and support each other.

One such group is Phrame Wales – a collective focused on promoting active and emerging female photographers working with photography in the South Wales area. Co-founded in 2018 by Lisa Edgar & Celia Rose Jackson, Phrame is open to everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, class or creed. The collective offers a warm welcome, shared expertise and energy, and an empowering, inclusive atmosphere to all.

I’ve been a member of this collective since 2018, and although we’re mostly active on social media at the moment, lock down has given us as a group the opportunity to come together, touch base and plan our next move in this post COVID-19 world. Hopefully it won’t be long until we have more current exciting news to share with everyone, and have dates for new events to launch. Until that time, todays post flags up just *some* of the great things Phrame members have been / are up to since our inaugural show in May 2019 (see my previous post about DIFFUSION here).

Keep up to date with new announcements from Phrame by joining our mailing list, or following us on social media:

phramecollective@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/Phramewales

www.instagram.com/phramewales/

www.twitter.com/PHRAMEWales

TTFN – K xxx

OPPORTUNITIES with PHRAME

Phrame Instagram Takeovers – Curated by Phil Scully

Offering a platform to profile and amplify photographers during COVID-19, @phramewales are inviting proposals of photographic projects to takeover the collective’s Instagram account, share ideas and connect with new audiences.

If you are interested in taking part, please email phramecollective@gmail.com with a sample of images and an outline of the work you would like to share on the takeover.

“For the Our Creative Cardiff project, I will be creating work that centres around how people are dealing with grief and how they are grieving during lockdown. Near the beginning of quarantine, I lost my grandfather to Covid-19 and since then, I have been examining how I have been dealing with the grieving process being apart from my family. As this is a personal process, I am reaching out to ask how others have been dealing with loss in quarantine. I am asking for a few sentences, even just a word (for example, cooking or baking, like I have been doing) to gather a wider, more diverse range of experiences. These will then inform the imagery and text I will use in the work.”

Molly Caenwyn – Grief & Grieving in Lockdown

Earlier this month, Phrame Wales member Molly Caenwyn announced she had won a Creative Cardiff commission – see left to read what her project is about and how you could become involved.

If you are feel comfortable taking part or have any questions about the project, feel free to contact Molly either by direct message on Instagram or email: mollycaenwyn@hotmail.co.uk

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

AS WE SEE IT

Diffusion – Cardiff’s International Festival of Photography

https://diffusionfestival.org/programme/as-we-see-it

The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff

01/04 – 17/05/2019

Phrame’s inaugural show curated for Diffusion 2019. While the work on display is richly varied in content, there are some common strategies and modes of approach. A number of the exhibitors share a passion for documenting the world around them, and an interest in both story-telling and gathering the stories of others through engagement and interaction. There is also a preoccupation with the materiality of photography, notably analogue processes including the use of pinhole cameras, paper negatives and cyanotype. In some quarters there is, somewhat paradoxically, a sense of the inadequacy of the medium of photography to express fully the complexities of lived experience or of the world at large. This manifests itself in the use of mixed media and text to create complex, layered work that stretches conventional definitions of photography.

Artists

EVERYWOMAN

An exhibition sponsored by Leanne Wood MS

Oriel – Senedd Cymru, Welsh Parliament

25/02 – 25/03/2020

The National Assembly for Wales is proud to mark International Women’s Day 2020 with Everywoman, an exhibition by the Phrame photography collective.

The exhibition celebrates women’s work that otherwise might go unnoticed. It brings together ten practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds whose work deals with a variety of contemporary issues. Their concerns include the maternal experience, the challenges of sickness and disability within the benefit system, the impact of women in the arts, mental health, and those who seek to empower others through work and through play. Everywoman aims to highlight the work of hidden treasures – those women who may be far less recognised than public figures but who nevertheless do work of real value that makes a positive impact within their communities.

Artists