Museums, Art Galleries and Cultural items

[Merddin Emrys]

I'm glad it's not just me then, we had a look a few months ago, took about 15 mins and we concluded that it was a load of old tat. I'm convinced that a lot of this so called art that certain arty types says is so good, is  like the emperor's new clothes, no one wants to say that it's crap  L0L 

However as someone said earlier, I'd love to see local photographers etc displaying their work there.

[hollins]

The last time I went in Oriel Mostyn was years ago.  I have no clue what the exhibits were called as they were all a pile of pants as far as I was concerned.  In one corner was a pile of rubbish (seriously)  old cans, chip boxes large pieces of drift wood bin bags etc, I could have rounded all that up and thrown it in a pile but wouldn't have the cheek to call it art! Another exhibit was an 8' burnt plank of wood with a hole in the top??  I know that were supposed to see the "deeper meaning" in all this dross but to me a pile of crap and a burnt plank is not art. 

I couldn't agree with you more Pendragon. My first visit there was to witness the assembling of the rubbish pile. There was a huge row going on involving the "artist." What ever happened to painitng, photography, ceramics and textiles. The Ruthin gallery has a much better balance in my view. I have seen many beautiful exhibits there and have even bought a couple of things. One was a double cloth blanket woven in Wales the traditional way and designed by Eleanor Pritchard.
Let's hope that the new director that Llechwedd mentions will change things for the better.
Let's also hope that he maybe reading the comments on this forum and be writing to DaveR  at this moment to suggest he shows his work there.

[Nemesis]

I've given up going to the Oriel Mostyn Gallery, not seen anything worth looking at.
Seems to have been a waste of money to me but then that's only my opinion.

And mine

[Jack]

If you are looking for a beautiful gallery displaying Welsh art then Ffin y Parc on the A470 between Llanrwst and Betws is well worth a visit.  The building is a former Liverpool merchant's holiday getaway but more recently was owned by CCBC as a care home.  The present owners opened it as a gallery a couple of years ago and in the last couple of months have opened a fantastic cafe and are busy converting the upper floors to a guest house.  The cakes are all home baked and to die for.

[Quiggs]

The last time I went to the gallery, there was a large wooden crate with a bloke with boots on walking back and forth inside. I swore that I would never bother going there again.   

[Merddin Emrys]

When I went, there was nothing there that good!

[Fester]

A agree with all this... I went once with Dave, and it made me feel vaguely embarrassed because I thought I was inferior because I didn't 'get it'
But thats what the elite WANT you to think!

I was tempted to phone Gwynned Skip hire, and throw the whole lot in.

[Nemesis]

Made me wonder what was lurking in that pile of garbage to come out and run round at night! Bet there were plenty of different occupants! Yeuk!

[DaveR]

Forum members may wish to pay a visit to Oriel Mostyn, where they will currently find such delights as...

1) a paperback book with a dead ant sellotaped to the back cover.
2) a chocolate vending machine hooked up to a BBC news feed that dispenses a bar of chocolate whenever a news item that mentions the economy comes up.

To explain...

"Taking its title from the name of a street, the exhibition plays on its double meaning. Apart from its connection with laughter, a “ha-ha” also refers to a type of sunken boundary: a wall or fence set into a trench, forming a hidden division in a landscape whilst preserving the scenic view. This invisible frontier serves as a neat metaphor for our relationship to the world of laughter.
Strangely indistinguishable from the familiar terrain of normality, a joke transports us to a place where sense breaks down, where the familiar is turned on its head, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and where the world means differently. Nothing has changed and yet everything has changed. This is the paradoxical condition of humour, and the source of its disruptive power.
The show explores what it means to step over this barrier and to set foot into the inexplicable and illogical world of humour. The selected artworks demonstrate how acts of absurdity, irrationality or playfulness can interrupt reality and momentarily destabilise common assumptions. The strategies used by the artists in Ha Ha Road, serve to illustrate the liberating freedom of thought at work in humour. They invite us to look at the world from the other side of the fence."

[Merddin Emrys]

I hope I'm not paying in any way for that nonsense!

[Fester]

This is excellent...!
Tomorrow you will find me laid on the floor in Oriel Mostyn, beneath the chocolate dispensing vending machine, with my mouth open, hoping for Mervyn King (Governer of the Bank of England) to depress us with a tirade of negative updates about the UK economy!   D) D)

[Blodyn]

But Fester, what about your diet?!!! 

[DaveR]

I note from the NWWN that Oriel Mostyn is looking for £150,000 from CCBC to help alleviate their precarious financial position. Who could have guessed that this day was coming?

[norman08]

yes dave ,they spend £3.5 mill on a revamp,how it cost that much who knows ,then inside of paper story about trying to keep the fire ladder, I know the one i,d want to keep

[hollins]

Yes, what a wasted opportunity. I gave up on the cafe, it was so badly run and I never found any of the exhibits I could relate to.
Such a pity because I think the building looks good now.