Artist Interview: Amelia Seren Roberts
Amelia Seren Roberts, sitting amongst her exhibition. Photo by Tom Morley.
Amelia Seren Roberts was the winner of the Surface Gallery X UK New Artists Prize in 2019, which resulted in her solo exhibition, Cauldron Born: How Long I Have Thirsted to be a God Among Men (26th June - 10th July 2021 at Surface Gallery Nottingham).
Working across textiles and installation, Amelia Seren Roberts applies traditional Welsh quilting techniques to the representation of Welsh mythic heritage and popular cultural imagery. Cauldron Born draws commonalities between the re-presentation of Welsh folklore in Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Disney’s The Black Cauldron. The exhibition explores the dissemination of traditional Welsh cultural narratives as they are re-told through American perspectives and Westernised popular culture. Roberts’ use of quilt-making as a practice is closely linked to Welsh social history, questioning how quilting has evolved from a culture borne of familial and social responsibility.
UK New Artists visited the exhibition and caught up with Amelia; discussing the show, her work and influences, and what advice she has for new artists.
Amelia chatting to Laura from UKNA amongst her exhibition. Photo by Tom Morley.
Your practice is influenced by Welsh folklore and quilting, can you tell us about those inspirations and how they manifest in your work?
It’s the idea of being able to relate to Welsh folklore through an Americanised, Disneyfied presentation that you’d have probably experienced well before you were aware of the original folklore. I would guess that most people in England have watched a Disney film before they’ve read anything by Hans Christian Andersen or Grimm Brothers, or in this case something from the Mabinogion, which is a compendium of Welsh folklore which had been told and re-told orally in Wales, then collected and transcribed by an Englishwoman and then adapted by an American author for a series of novels for young people...which then got taken on by Disney to make the Black Cauldron... And now it’s here, many times removed!
My mum does a lot of traditional quilting, and one of the pieces in this show is actually a quilt that she has made. It has the Welsh dragon and English rose embroidered on it to represent her and my dad. When I go back to Wales to visit my family, mum and I will sit with a cup of tea, have a chat and stitch together, so it has always been a part of my practice.
You won the Surface X UKNA prize in 2019. How has your work/practice/thinking developed since then?
It’s been quite a difficult time, because I’m a Lecturer in a university, so a lot of my time over covid has been spent taking care of students and trying to adjust the curriculum to online teaching, so an arts practice has really been something quite difficult to maintain in some ways. In other ways, the type of practice that I have now - I can do at home, that has been quite helpful while the studios have been closed. One of the studios I work at is still closed, so the work has had to be adjusted because of that - but it’s presented some new challenges that have been beneficial to the work because I’ve had to come up with a way to resolve those access issues.
How many of the pieces in this show have you made over the lockdown period?
All of them apart from two. *wow*
‘Triquetra Sateen Wholecloth Quilt’. Photo by Tom Morley
I love the way you’ve presented the work - the freestanding structures, the chains, these sculptural brackets. Can you talk about that?
I think it’s really important for the quilts to be seen from both sides and not pushed against the wall. Because even though some of them are less messy than others on the back, there’s something about stitching and quilting being imperfect. Each stitch is a different length, you don’t get that with machine stitching, so working in a really traditional way, being able to show the quilt from both sides highlights that. That’s also part of the reason that I don’t edge or hem my work so you can actually see what it’s made of in the middle. This one is made from treated but not dyed wool, so you can see the more traditional materials that go into that, and then the wool that’s here is untreated - literally taken off a fence in Wales a couple of weeks ago (it has been disinfected!). It’s just a playful way of showing the work as well, I’ve been to a lot of quilting exhibitions in more rural settings, and they don’t tend to prioritise the display of the work in the way that a contemporary art setting would, so I wanted to combine those things. The cutouts are Disney villain-esque, and then I’ve got some quilts that are made very traditionally but aren’t necessarily what an expert would expect. A Welsh quilt will traditionally have a central medallion and then it will have this inner and outer border and recurring motifs. They’re composed of symbols; this represents nature, and this means forever or eternal, so it’s this continual life-cycle. Whereas this one has the central motif and traditional border, but it’s Hen-Wen, the oracular pig eternally. It’s a humorous take on it I guess, that questions how these stories and cultures are passed down.
Sheep’s wool taken from a fence in wales. Photo by Tom Morley.
What’s next for you?
I work in a collective as well as independently. So currently I’ve got another show on in Birmingham at Vivid Projects, it’s called DOOM and the project that I’ve done with KÜHLE WAMPE is called Harbingers of Doom. It’s a video performance work and I make costumes and props, but we share all of the work. We’ve got another show coming up in London at Collective Ending in September. Also, for pride month Contemporary Cymru are featuring Welsh artists who identify as LGBTQ+, so they’re featuring me this week!
I think I’ll just try and keep the momentum going after this and over the summer when I have some time off teaching. I thought when I finished this I would be sick of quilting and not want to do it anymore, but I was talking to my mum and saying ‘I’m not doing anything with my hands, I don’t know what to do’ so I’ll probably end up making some more quilts.
‘Hen-Wen Sateen Wholecloth’. Photo by Tom Morley.
What advice would you give to new artists just starting out their practice?
Surround yourself with good people who are also practicing, and if you can’t afford to get a studio, get an associate membership. You can get them for like £5 a month and it means that you’re invited to all of the openings, PVs, training; things they put on. It’s so important to have a community of people around you who are also making work, ideally people who get where you’re coming from, but anyone is better than no one.
Go to a lot of shows as well. I know it’s been really difficult over covid, but if you’re not surrounding yourself with art or reading or even watching YouTube about art or ideas, then you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to progress and keeping yourself in a bubble. Also you meet people at exhibitions and you can get opportunities to work together or discuss art with people who’re interested too.
Keep entering gallery Opens, they are a great opportunity where you don’t have to put in the amount of money, time, effort that you might have to for an exhibition of your own work, but you can still show your artwork and build an exhibition list for your CV.