Florilingua

Floralingua accompanies Shani Rhys James' new touring exhibition of paintings and an installation which distills the motifs of her recent work into a three dimensional audio experience. Here are Rhys James' characteristic wild wallpapers, menacing chandeliers and other domestic items in a specially created room, in which poems appear from amidst flowers. Seven poets respond to the situations in the paintings to create a compelling dialogue between paint and word on issues of domesticity, the relationship of women and home, rootlessness and what the places in which we live say about us. The responding poets are: Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke, Menna Elfyn, Jasmine Donahaye, Amy Wack, Pele Cox and Patrick Christopher Kavanagh.

Shani Rhys James was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1953. She trained at St. Martin's School of Art, and has been living and working in Wales for 30 years. Influenced by Gillian Ayers, Jan Svankmajer, Louise Bourgeois, Francis Bacon and Rembrandt, her work is to be found important public and private collections around the world. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including The Jerwood Painting Prize, The Hunting Observer Prize, a National Portrait Award, The Mostyn Open, the Gold Medal at the National Eisteddfod and Welsh Woman of Culture. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and also received a Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales in 2006.