Exhibition captures past lives of manor house
Julie Upmeyer
How old are you?: 40
Where are you from?: Michigan, USA
THIS week we talk to Julie Upmeyer, who has organised a virtual exhibition in a house in Anglesey.
Q
Tell us about your family
A
I met my husband Jonathan in Istanbul, though he is from Colwyn Bay. Our eldest daughter Ffion was born there and moved with us to Anglesey a few years ago. Our youngest daughter Nesta is two, and was born right here in North Wales.
Q
Tell us about your exhibition
A
Unus Multorum was meant to have opened in April as a physical exhibition with projects, installations and artist multiples from 111 creative people, but was interrupted and fundamentally changed by the lockdown. It has evolved into a timeless project, gently unfolding over the course of the year inside of Plas Bodfa and in the digital realm. Some of the projects have made their way into the house, others are coming to life in studios, sheds, dining room tables and online.
Q
When is it running from/ to?
A
Always and forever here: https://www.plasbodfa. com/unus-multorum-2020.
Q
What can people expect?
A
The works were supposed to have been seen by a real live audience, surrounded by the fabric of the house, the views out the windows and fellow visitors to the show.
I’ve been trying to give the works a sense of place, to translate their concepts to a remote audience and to give them a sense of place and meaning.
The project webpage is a collection of videos, texts, images, animations, conglomerations, documentary films and interviews.
I’ve been giving monthly livestream tours of the show, and we also have a monthly live event when we hear presentations from some of the creatives involved.
It is a perpetual work-inprogress as more work is added to the house and I discover new ways to describe the experience.
QTell us five things which make your exhibition great?
AThe best part is the variety of different ideas and materials included in the show – games and murals, sculptures and poems, weaving and photography, sounds and textiles, marbles and polaroid.
Q A
Tell us what’s good about the venue
Plas Bodfa is a space of possibilities. As an empty manor house on the Isle of Anglesey, it embraces its past lives, showing traces of its days as a family home, a steak house, a care home, a tearoom and headquarters to the Elizabeth Bradley tapestry kit company.
The exhibition projects we have done in the past few years have sought to reactivate the space after a decade of quietness, to bring people and ideas and energy back to Plas Bodfa.
QWhat piece of work are you most proud of and why?
AI am so proud of all the creatives in this show, we have all been adapting and evolving our work over these past months and I am so grateful that we have all stuck with it as a group, supporting each other when many parts of our lives and work have been totally altered and changed.
QWhat’s next for you? What are you currently working on, or what do you plan to work on?
AI have just launched Plas Bodfa Objects – a collection of limited-edition creations from artists, makers, musicians, thinkers and creative people of all sorts. This collection of artist multiples was supposed to have launched within the Unus Multorum exhibition in April. I’ve been working hard on the online shop, and it’s now open! www.plasbodfa.com/ objects.
It’s my job now to make this project visible to people locally, nationally and throughout the world.