Art examining complex reactions to ageing
T HIS week we talk to artist Karen Birkin, whose work is based on the impacts of ageing, and is inspired by the fact that Plas Bodfa had once been a care home. Q Tell us about your family: A I live on the Llŷn Peninsula with my husband Andrew Birkin, our two children and a great deal of animals. Our farm is by the sea and we have been rewilding the land there for 13 years by planting lots of native trees.
It’s been amazing to see the increase in birds, bats and insects.
Q Tell us about your exhibition A I have made a series of paintings about the dystopic worlds of the residents of Plas Bodfa when it was a care home. The paintings are about dementia and how it distorts reality and also about care givers like the little chef Arwell who worked in the kitchen with his grandmother. They reflect the complex feelings we have about growing old and being trapped in an ageing body.
The paintings are being hung in Plas Bodfa, Llangoed, Anglesey as part of the Bodfa Continuum exhibition.
Q When is it running from/to? A 9-24 April 2022 11am - 5pm every day.
Q What can people expect?
A There are 69 creative projects from over 77 artists, makers and creative people.
You can Wander through more than 35 rooms filled with works from painters and printmakers, stitchers and sculptors, potters and pathfinders, sound artists and sun catchers, poets and pigment makers along with elements of augmented reality.
Q Tell us what’s good about the venue
A I found out about Plas Bodfa while I was doing an MA in fine art at Coleg Menai and I feel incredibly grateful to Julie Upmeyer for creating this opportunity for artists. It was from her careful archival collection of photographs that I drew inspiration for this series of paintings in the first place and then to have a chance to exhibit them in the building where the residents actually lived is so full of meaning and poetry.
Q What piece of work are you most proud of and why?
A ”The ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around” This was the first painting in the series and the title comes from children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak called “Where the wild things are”. In the story Max enters the wild side of his imagination and in his mind he transforms his bedroom into a jungle environment. By painting the two old ladies in amongst the vines I wanted to have the suggestion of reverting to a younger state of mind, the second childhood that is often part of ageing. The Easter bonnets that they wear also signals the playfulness of childhood.
Q What’s next for you? What are you working on, or what do you plan to work on?
A My next solo exhibition is at “The Table gallery” in Hay on Wye in October 2023.
(You can find out more about Karen’s works at the following links: www. karenbirkin.com and instagram @birkinkaren).