Latest news with #CELF
Powys County Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Newtown exhibition brings Powys past to life in photographs
An evolving exhibition beginning on the streets of Newtown before moving into the gallery and developing over the summer months has been launched. The exhibition is opening with a selection of images by Geoff Charles. Geoff Charles' contribution to Welsh photography is unique. His approach is characterised by both an innate talent and an empathy for his subjects. He worked as a photojournalist in Wales from the 1930s to the 1970s and was the photographer of record in Welsh-speaking Wales for most of that period. Today his archive is one of the treasures of The National Library of Wales. As part of the CELF development the gallery commissioned photographer Mohamed Hassan to take portraits of people in Newtown today. This process was documented in a short film by Ellie Orrell. The work provides an interesting document of the everyday lives of people in the town. As the exhibition develops it will also feature work from John Thomas (1838-1905), PB Abery (1876-1948), Don 'The Flash' Griffiths, and more. Oriel Davies director Steffan Jones-Hughes said: 'The title for the exhibition comes from a statement by the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, who in 1849 wrote 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose' – the more things change, the more they stay the same. This statement suggests a passive approach, indicating that we either opt not to change, believing that our actions won't make a difference, or we embrace change, understanding that without it, nothing will ever improve. 'I thought that the concept of Everything Changes / Everything Stays The Same was worth exploring in the context of the gallery being shut for improvements, only to reopen and look exactly the same.' It is an exciting time for the gallery with its partnership with its National Contemporary Art Gallery for Wales collaboration promising to make Wales' national contemporary art collections more accessible. As part of the CELF partnership the gallery aims to bring works from the Davies Sisters Collections back to Newtown to allow us art lovers to celebrate the unique contribution two women from mid Wales made on the art world and explore how their legacy continues to influence future generations of artists. Oriel Davies was built originally in 1967 as the Davies Memorial Gallery designed by RIBA President Alex Gordon, with a bequest from Margaret Davies, one of the Davies Sisters of Gregynog. Margaret and Gwendoline collected art in the early to mid-20th Century. When the sisters' collections were given to the nation they raised the profile of the National Museum in Cardiff to an international level, including important works by Turner, Monet, Cezanne, and Renoir, alongside significant British modernist painters such as Vanessa Bell and Christopher Wood. Oriel Davies, was originally called Oriel 31 (named after the premises at 31, High Street, Welshpool) and was established in 1982, before moving to the Davies Memorial Gallery in 1985 and was renamed Oriel Davies Gallery in 2003. The gallery underwent two phases of redevelopment in 2002-2004 including the new cafe and reflective facias introduced by B3Burgess. Over the winter months work has been carried out and completed on a new roof system, with additional insulation that makes it more energy efficient. Steffan said: 'We've replaced some of the glazed units which had failed, we've increased security across the site, and we've installed new air handling systems. To most people, the gallery will look the same, but the work has been extensive and we hope to show more as the year progresses. 'The main change will be that we now have an established relationship for ongoing work with the National Library and The National Museum.' The gallery is interested in working with contemporary artists whose work connects with historical art, as could be seen in past National Gallery partnerships between 2021-2023 when historical pieces by Verrocchio, Rembrandt and Chardin were showcased.
Cambrian News
23-04-2025
- Business
- Cambrian News
Storiel, Bangor hosts new exhibition by Shani Rhys James and Stephen West
Cllr Medwyn Hughes, Cabinet Member for Economy and Community, added: "We are very fortunate to be able to welcome this exhibition to Storiel. This has been made possible through the support of CELF - the National Contemporary Art Gallery of Wales project. This project is a valuable one that makes national collections more accessible to all, providing access through a loan programme across a network of galleries across Wales, as well as digitally through the Celf ar y Cyd website."
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why the French have fallen out of cœur with core
They think it's bizarre not to take a two-hour lunch break, and consider the show Emily in Paris 'worse than cliche'. Next on the list of things that irk the French? The suffix: 'core'. Earlier this week, the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language (CELF) called on French speakers to stop using it. Writing in the Journal Officiel, a site that publishes the legislative and regulatory texts of France, it said that, while 'terms formed with the English ending core, such as cottagecore, royalcore, Barbiecore, or gorpcore, are widely used to describe a clothing style and, by extension, a lifestyle inspired by idealised vision of a particular universe', it is preferable to use the word 'style'. Instead of Barbiecore, it suggests Barbie style. In place of gorpcore? Hiker style. This isn't the first time that the infiltration of an English word or phrase into the French language has caused outrage. In 2018 CELF asked French speakers to replace 'fake news' with 'information fallacieuse'. Two years later, the words clickbait and podcast came under scrutiny. Olivia Walsh, an associate professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of Nottingham, says she is not surprised core has now been targeted – but describes concerns about anglicism use as 'generally overblown'. 'Those who oppose anglicisms often do not demonstrate awareness of the etymological history of terms,' Walsh says. 'There are many borrowings which are termed aller-retours because they were originally borrowed into English from French and then back again into French, sometimes centuries later.' How did a word that stems from the French language (it is derived from the word cœur, meaning heart) come to be so prolific in fashion? In fashion terms, a core is a trend. But it also goes beyond the clothes, describing an aesthetic, encompassing everything from music to moods. The beloved gen Z Aesthetics Wiki page currently features 149 cores, from blokecore (think British football culture and 1980s jerseys) to witchcore, where tarot, crystals and vintage wedding dresses are key. The first use of the word core can be traced to the early 20th century. In the 1920s, 'hard core' was used to describe people committed to a political party or political cause. Lynne Murphy, professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, says during the 70s it was treated as 'a bit suffixy', with the use of the word softcore in relation to pornography. Fast forward to 2003 and the Oxford English Dictionary added it as a suffix. But things really took off in 2013 with the emergence of normcore, a catchall term for describing someone who wears 'normal' clothes such as a fleece, dad jeans and New Balance trainers. 2020 was dominated by cottagecore (baking, crochet) following the pandemic lockdown. Greta Gerwig was to blame for Barbiecore, in 2023, while Zendaya in the 2024 film Challengers saw the emergence of tenniscore. There has also been goblincore (think mushroom motifs and mossy greens) corpcore (basically workwear), balletcore (ballet flats and wrap cardigans) and mermaidcore (long wavy hair and seaweed greens) For 2025, fishermancore (cable knit jumpers and lobster platters) is being championed. Sign up to Fashion Statement Style, with substance: what's really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved after newsletter promotion Murphy says the speed of the internet has encouraged the use of labels that set subcultures apart. 'Portmanteau words and these kinds of nouveau suffixes – or combining forms, as they are often called in dictionary-speak - are a way to give things clever, descriptive new names that can be easily understood,' she says. It's been five years since the word podcast was replaced with 'audio à la demande', but many French speakers still pepper the original anglicism into speech. Murphy credits the importance of the fashion industry to France for turning the focus to the word core but thinks the latest advice is unlikely to be followed. 'If they use imported words, it could look like the French are following Anglo-American trends rather than making their own,' she says. 'But, of course, we also know that such decrees about language are often ineffective.' To read the complete version of this newsletter – complete with this week's trending topics in The Measure and your wardrobe dilemmas solved – subscribe to receive Fashion Statement in your inbox every Thursday.
