Current Exhibition

Bedwyr Williams

SELECTED WORKS BY Bedwyr Williams

Bedwyr Williams
Walk a mile in my shoes

2006

Installation with size 13 shoes, written notes, poster, shelving and foot-rests

Dimensions variable

Bedwyr Williams often draws upon the quirky banalities of his own autobiographic existence to develop his sculptures and performances. His work merges art and life with a comedic twist that is instantaneously sympathetic and relational. In Walk A Mile In My Shoes, Williams presents a display case boasting 45 pairs of used shoes. Not just any old footwear however – each bootie is Williams’s own whopping size 13.

Inviting the audience to share in his own problematics of podiatry, viewers are encouraged to try the gear on: an act that invariably relays the humour and embarrassment of floppy footed clowns and sasquatch clumsiness. The importance that each pair of shoes was purchased second hand underlies the key themes of Williams’s piece – with the knowledge that there are at least over 40 other Hobbit-pawed souls in the world – Walk A Mile In My Shoes celebrates diversity, inclusion, and community; through the simple practicalities of footwear, Williams extols the values of tolerance and individual difference.

Bedwyr Williams
Walk a mile in my shoes

2006

Installation with size 13 shoes, written notes, poster, shelving and foot-rests

Dimensions variable

Bedwyr Williams
Walk a mile in my shoes (Detail)

2006

Installation with size 13 shoes, written notes, poster, shelving and foot-rests

Dimensions variable

ARTICLES

Bedywr Williams

Bedywr Williams stakes a position alongside artists such as William Wegman and Sean Landers, where it becomes difficult to know where the art begins and the comedy leaves off. Much of his work is performance based and uses costume, character and stand-up routines, usually autobiographical to explore themes such as provincial pathos, macho stereotyping and art-world pretentiousness. The pieces that he will show across the three venues all display his particular and poignant strain of comedy and 'performativity' that arises from a personal reflection on cultural misunderstanding and alienation.

At the ICA, Walk a mile in my shoes (2006) is both sculptural installation and self portrait. More than 40 pairs of oversize shoes, painstakingly tracked down, are displayed on a wall-based rack, in front of which are placed two benches.
"This work is about an aspect of my life that has ruined walking trips, beach holidays, weddings and football games. I have size 13 feet. Since I was 18 I have struggled with shoe availability. The choice in my size is limited. You see a shoe that you like and when the mini-foot shop assistant brings it out in a size 13 it is a strange stretched version of the smaller, original shoe. Each of the 40+ shoes in the piece have been tracked down, none were bought off the shelf. Walk a mile in my shoes is an invitation to share a little of my ongoing shoe struggle. Try them on you'll grow into them."

Read the entire article here
Source: ica.org.uk

Bedwyr williams – biography

Bedwyr Williams was born in St Asaph, north Wales in 1974 and spent his formative years in Colwyn Bay. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Central St Martins School of Art in 1997 followed by a Dutch equivalent MA from Ateliers, Arnhem Following a period in London he returned to live and work in north Wales, to Rhostryfan near Caernarfon.

He makes and uses videos, photography, performance, drawing, text and the occasional stand up comedy and karaoke. He has created a number of events that are whole environments. Through this broad range of media, a strong sense of surrealistic humour and a sharp critical mind, he explores notions of what it means to be an artist born and currently living and working in north Wales.

He makes work relevant to a sense of place and belonging but simultaneously refuses to be compromised or pigeon-holed by provincial tastes or stereotypes.
He has just been awarded the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Art 2004 and has featured recently in a Guardian article by Adrian Searle in which he identified Bedwyr as one of seven artists in the UK who will be developing an international profile. Recent projects and exhibitions include Operation Ferrule, Ffotogallery, Cardiff; Romantic Detachment, Grizedale Arts/PS1 New York and Tyranny of the Meek, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.

Read the entire article here
Source: walesvenicebiennale.org

Bedwyr williams – Tyranny of the Meek

As a young boy on the cusp of manhood, Bedwyr Williams became a member of his local Model Railway Club, situated in a large shed in a small village in North Wales. The evenings he lolled away there amongst the spur lines, junctions and miniature trees, provided Williams with his first taste of the rites of manhood. "It was actually at the club listening to the older members that I started drinking coffee properly," Williams recalls. "A few members would congregate by the kettle, and chairs would be drawn up. They would talk about people that I didn't know but even so I still laughed when they recalled an anecdote or two about Railway Exhibitions from long ago."

But as with life, the sweet pleasure derived from simple pastimes was fleeting. Williams' face darkens as he recalls, "These congenial evenings were tempered by a dark force: we shared the building with a snooker club." Cue-wielding muscular men who drank lager instead of instant coffee populated this other, larger part of the shed. Each model-railway enthusiast had to deferentially pass by the snooker tables on the way to their back part of the hall. "We had to wait for shots to be taken even if the shot was being taken on the other side of the table. It was a bit like a threatening manned level crossing with cue barriers," Williams recalls ruefully. "I'm not sure how I knew that the snooker players looked down on us but I remember noticing that some of our adult members were a little scared of them."

Read the entire article here
Source: storegallery.co.uk