Review: Re:Animate at Oriel Davies, Newtown

Helen Grove-White, The Incredible Lightness of Being, video still (detail, installation view)

It's been my fault that all these years I've passed through Newtown without actually stopping there - either in the middle of the night, coming and going from journeys to Lakeland, or zipped through on the early morning National Express to London. The result is that I know the cafe by the bus stops is reliable for a cheap cappuccino, but I've had to content myself with seeing the adjacent Oriel Davies gallery from the outside, closed. I realise now that I was making a mistake.

Richard Bowers, The Velvet Lantern, video still (installation view)

Yesterday I discovered that there's a fantastic exhibition on at Oriel Davies, Newtown, until 18 August. Re:Animate, focused on movement and animation, as the title suggests, is a feast of short screenings in multiple spaces, as well as a number of installations, sculptures and two-dimensional works. I'd allowed myself just under an hour to see it, not unreasonable, you might think, as there are only two main rooms plus a small temporary space called 'Test Bed' (featuring Dawn Woolley until 18 August) and an education area. However... there were three separate looped programmes of videos, plus numerous other video screens and three installations that included time-based projections... plus all the things that didn't move. As someone who likes to see things properly, I rushed around and felt I could have easily spent two hours in the gallery, interrupted perhaps by a snack in the attractive cafe and a quick browse round the shop. The staff were quite apologetic at having to throw me out at five... not a problem, I shall certainly be back!

Adam Kossoff, Train Lines, video still (installation view)

Duncan McKellar, 48 Hours in Moscow

Oriel Davies, Newtown

18 July 2010

All photos copyright Margaret Sharrow, 2010 and are installation views.

All copyright remains with the artists.