Wyth Blodeugerdd / Eight Readers

Fel rhan o’r / as part of

– Yfory trwy Lygiad ddoe – / – the future has a past –

Astudiaeth o ddyfodol posibl / our study of a possible future

2019-2021

gan Henry Alles / by Henry Alles

The Future Has A Past, 2021-2022

A suitcase and picnic table containing eight readers*, a picnic cloth, an exhibition booklet and a small wrench. With it I celebrate the exhibition The Future has a Past (2021-2022). The readers contain the research process for the exhibition from September 2019 onwards all the way into the first lockdowns of the pandemic in 2020. For the research part of the project I lived on the museum premises, which was ended unexpectedly due to the pandemic. Back home in the Netherlands I created the readers and send them to the museum in time for the exhibition. The readers themselves have a cover made of fabric from the Laura Ashley company.

The whole of suitcase and readers called Wyth Blodeugerdd / Eight Readers(2022) was created after the exhibition ended. I am donating it to St Fagan’s National History Museum as part of archiving the exhibition The Future has a Past.

The design of the suitcase is a direct reference to the exhibition by redesigning a suitcase into a diner table with blackboards and books into one utensil that invites the user to play an active role.

It will be much appreciated if future readers go for a picnic and leave their traces in the readers so we know that the connection between past and future was not lost. In other words: With Wyth Blodeugerdd / Eight Readers I hope to make new connections possible.

* All the readers have been scanned and are available as PDF, for more information please send a mail to: henry@landscapelabs.nl.

Contents Wyth Blodeugerdd / Eight Readers:

  • Suitcase / Table: (approx) 60cm*40cm*(table height)40cm(closed: 12cm)
  • Reader 1: Change & Place / September-October 2019, concept development and initial research
  • Reader 2: The Art of Protest / November-December 2019, site-specific diners with objects
  • Reader 3: Diving into the Wreck / Part 1, Metropolis, protests and banners & Part 2, Mining, LGBTQ+ and minorities
  • Reader 4: At Home / Part 1, flooding, footprints and time-windows & Part 2, Cultures, migration and the rural
  • Reader 5: The Future is Now / Part 1, Stories, predictions and human bones in a house & Part 2, All we made use of dead and alive
  • Reader 6: Art & Heritage / January-February 2020, rehearsing the exhibition design
  • Reader 7: The Future has a Past / Part 1, With the politics of economy preparing the exhibition & Part 2, With the politics of ecology; at home during a lockdown
  • Reader 8: Pont Byrfynd / Part 1, Making it work and protest & Part 2, Creating social fabric, writing a fourth chapter and re-designing the exhibition

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