Dafydd Williams, malum

glynnvivian posted a photo:

Emerging Swansea-based artist Dafydd Williams will be displaying his photographic work, alongside works from the Gallery’s collection, part of the Gallery’s strategy to ask artist’s to work with and use the collection.

Williams is interested in symbolism and technique in renaissance paintings, primarily by the Masters Michelangelo and Caravaggio, which are used to critique contemporary gender and sexual structures. This series of photographs, naturally lit or mimicking natural chiaroscuro lighting, feature Williams and his partner in a contemporary male-male domestic relationship. malum, derived from the Latin word for both ‘apple’ and ‘evil’, refers to the historically discriminatory attitude towards sexual difference and the biblical idea of forbidden fruit. Williams has attempted to highlight the non-sensical argument that homosexuality is a ‘modern phenomenon’, and in doing so, wishes to debunk or revise Western art history.’

This series has been programmed in partnership with Swansea Pride, LGBT History Month and has been generously supported by Art Fund, Friends of Glynn Vivian and the Arts Council of Wales.

Photography, Polly Thomas, 2020