alison mercer helfa gelf

Vivienn Rickman Poole

Enjoy the work of  local fibre artist Alison Mercer and Photographer Vivienne Rickman-Poole who will be creating unique installations at the National Slate Museum as part of North Wales's ever popular Open Studios scheme. 

Alison will be exhibiting a selection of her artwork in the Victorian House and Vivienne will be based in the little paint shed in the central courtyard encouraging visitors to view and discuss their artwork and ideas.

Over the last few years Alison has exhibited at `Fiberart International`, FibrePhiladelphia, SOFA (Sculptural Objects and Fine Art Fair) in New York and Santa Fe ` in the USA. And will also be touring the UK with `Fibre Art Wales` with the exhibitions `Conversations` and `Dialogues` during 2012 / 2013. Alison is very excited to be creating artwork at the National Slate Museum and intends to use her stay to create a new artwork based on the museum collection.

Vivienne  experiments with a combination of homemade, vintage and toy cameras, exploring their creative possibilities, often modifying their parts and adjusting their inner workings. Occasionally she crosses over to the digital world adapting both old and new to work simultaneously.  This will be the third year Vivienne has been based at the museum for Helfa Gelf she finds the Quarry, Museum and lake a never ending source of inspiration for her work. Recently Vivienne was involved in the Cultural Olympiad ‘Adain Avion’ producing a short film exploring her relationship with her love of wild swimming in the mountain lakes of Snowdonia.