Codi'r Caead/Lifting the Lid- film screening + Q&A.

Please join Join Dr Darren Chetty; Marva Jackson Lord and Lal Davies for a discussion of themes arising from this work at GS Artists Swansea on 30th July at 6pm. Film showing 6.15, Q& A 6.40PM. Book Here.

Codi'r Caead/Lifting the Lid is a short documentary which reflects on Lal Davies’ work on Several Stages of Purification/Sawl Cam o Buro/Buredigaeth. This body of work includes six artist moving image installation films; sculptural installations; ‘reverse repatriation’ historical objects from Lal’s family archives and print/based collage installations. The work is a series of interventions in National Waterfront Museums’ narratives around the stories of Wales’ status as the first industrial nation, looking at this via a decolonial lens. With rich and insightful contributions from Author Dr Darren Chetty; Professor Robert Moore; Artist Marva Jackson Lord and Artist/Storyteller Chandrika Joshi. The work is on show at the National Waterfront Museum Swansea until August 2025. The six installation films can be viewed online here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/11528836

Dr Darren Chetty was born in Swansea and currently lives in London. He is a lecturer at University College London. He taught in primary schools for over twenty years. Darren’s research focuses on education, philosophical dialogue, multiculturalism and racism.

In 2023 he wrote and presented ‘The Dragon on My Shirt’ a five-part documentary series for the FAW’s Red Wall Plus, exploring Black and racially minoritised footballers who played football for Wales. In 2022, he co-edited Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (Repeater) and a special issue of Wasafiri entitled ‘Reimaging Education’. Darren also contributed to The Mab (Unbound), a contemporary retelling of the Mabinogi tales. He is a contributor to the bestselling book, The Good Immigrant (Unbound). Darren writes, with Karen Sands O’Connor, a regular column for Books for Keepsexamining racially minoritised characters in children’s literature, entitled Beyond the Secret Garden. A book, based on the column, was published in 2024. He has served on the advisory board of Planet Magazine and Wales Arts Review and acted as a critical friend for Literature Wales.

Marva Jackson Lord is an artist, writer, and sound practitioner based in rural Wales. Her multidisciplinary practice blends sound, collage, oral memory, and digital media to explore transformation, ancestral knowledge, and cultural memory. Born in Jamaica and raised in rural Canada, Marva’s relationship with music and sound began in early childhood, shaped by the rhythms of diasporic life. She later became embedded in the cultural fabric of Toronto as a DJ and community radio host, where she used sound, poetry and storytelling to amplify underrepresented voices and build connections across communities.

Drawing on her Jamaican and Canadian roots, her lived experience of contemporary life in Wales, and her deep listening to the land and its layered histories, Marva’s work engages with the silences, textures, and entangled narratives often left out of institutional accounts. She brings an embodied and intuitive approach to this discussion, rooted in care, memory, and creative reimagining.

Lal Davies is an award-winning filmmaker with South Indian and Southern Irish heritages. Three generations of her Indian family have been born in North Wales since migrating to the UK in 1919. Lal has an established practice of first-person narrative and short documentary filmmaking in social justice, particularly racial equity, education and heritage contexts and a multi-disciplinary art practice using film, photography and poetry. Lal has shown work nationally and internationally and is an Ethnic Minority Welsh Women Achievement Association (EMWWAA) awardee for her contribution to Arts & Culture in Wales.

Dr Anna Stenina (artist name - Anja Stenina) is a conceptual mixed-media artist and researcher from Latvia. In her work, she explores themes of dignity, human agency, and the obstacles on the journey to a fulfilling life.

In her PhD research, she explored the ethics of knowing and the ways our social imaginary is shaped by the dominant culture.

The artist’s visual practice reflects upon the dominant culture from the perspective of marginalised members of society. Anja portrays and experiments with the narratives, representations and metaphors of silencing in her films, mixed media artworks and 3D animation. She attempts to capture quotidian fleeting moments characterised by unknowing. https://www.anjastenina.com/films

Ymunwch â Dr Darren Chetty; Marva Jackson Lord a Lal Davies ar gyfer sgwrs ar y themâu a ddaw i’r amlwg yn y gwaith hwn ar y 30ain o Orffennaf yn GS Artists Abertawe.

Dewch erbyn 6yh, bydd dangosiad o’r ffilm am 6.15, a Chwestiwn ac Ateb am 6.40yh. Bwciwch fan hyn.

Rhaglen ddogfen fer yw Codi'r Caead/Lifting the Lid sy’n myfyrio ar waith Lal Davies ar ‘Several Stages of Purification/Sawl Cam o Buro/Buredigaeth.’ Mae’r corff hwn o waith yn cynnwys chwe darn o osodwaith lluniau symudol; gosodiadau cerfluniol; ‘reverse repatriation’, gwrthrychau hanesyddol o archifau teuluol Lal a gosodiadau torlun argraffedig. Cyfres o ymyrriadau yn ymwneud â naratifau Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau ynglŷn â’r straeon am statws Cymru fel y genedl ddiwydiannol cyntaf, ac edrych ar hyn o safbwynt dad-drefedigaethol. Gyda chyfraniadau trylwyr a threiddgar gan Dr Darren Chetty; Yr Athro Robert Moore; Yr Artist Marva Jackson Lord a’r Artist/Storïwr Chandrika Joshi. Mae’r gwaith yn cael ei ddangos yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau Abertawe tan mis Awst 2025. Gellir gwylio’r chwe gosodwaith ffilm arlein : https://vimeo.com/showcase/11528836

Ffilm-wneuthurwr gwobrwyedig yw Lal Davies sydd o dras Indiaidd a Gwyddelig. Mae tair cenhedlaeth o’i theulu Indiaidd wedi cael eu geni yng Ngogledd Cymru ers mudo i’r DU ym 1919. Mae gan Lal ymarfer sefydledig o greu ffilmiau dogfen byr a naratif person-cyntaf am gyfiawnder cymdeithasol, yn enwedig yn ymwneud â chyfiawnder hil, addysg a threftadaeth, ac ymarfer celfyddydol aml-ddisgyblaethol sy’n defnyddio ffilm, ffotograffiaeth a barddoniaeth. Mae Lal wedi dangos ei gwaith yn genedlaethol ac yn rhyngwladol, ac mae wedi derbyn gwobr gan yr Ethnic Minority Welsh Women Achievement Association (EMWWAA) am ei chyfraniad at Gelf a Diwylliant yng Nghymru.

Cafodd Dr Darren Chetty ei eni yn Abertawe ac mae bellach yn byw yn Llundain. Mae’n ddarlithydd yng Ngholeg Prifysgol Llundain. Bu’n dysgu mewn ysgolion cynradd am fwy nag ugain mlynedd. Pwyslais ymchwil Darren yw addysg, deialog athronyddol, amlddiwylliannedd a hiliaeth.

Yn 2023 bu’n ysgrifennu a chyflwyno ‘The Dragon on My Shirt' rhaglen ddogfen pum rhan ar gyfer Red Wall+, yn edrych ar chwaraewyr pêl droed Du a lleiafrifedig o ran hil a chwaraeodd bêl droed dros Gymru. Yn 2022, cyd-olygodd Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (Repeater) a rhifyn arbennig o Wasafiri o’r enw ‘Reimaging Education’. Cyfrannodd Darren at The Mab (Unbound) hefyd, ailddehongliad cyfoes o straeon y Mabinogi. Cyfrannodd at y llyfr hynod boblogaidd, The Good Immigrant (Unbound). Mae Darren, ar y cyd â Karen Sands O’Connor, yn ysgrifennu colofn rheolaidd ar gyfer Books for Keeps, yn archwilio cymeriadau lleiafrifedig o ran hil mewn llenyddiaeth i blant, sy’n dwyn y teitl Beyond the Secret Garden. Cafodd llyfr, sy’n seiliedig ar y golofn, ei gyhoeddi yn 2024. Mae wedi gwasanaethu ar fwrdd ymgynghorol Cylchgrawn Planet a Wales Arts Review ac wedi gweithredu fel ffrind beirniadol gyda Llenyddiaeth Cymru.

Artist, sgwennwr ac ymarferydd sain yw Marva Jackson Lord sy’n byw yng nghefn gwlad Cymru. Mae ei hymarfer amlddisgyblaethol yn cyfuno sain, torlun, cof llafar, a chyfryngau digidol er mwyn archwilio trawsnewidiad, gwybodaeth cynfamol, a chof diwylliannol. Wedi’i geni yn Jamaica a’i magu yng nghefn gwlad Canada, meithrinwyd diddordeb Marva mewn cerddoriaeth a sain yn ystod ei phlentyndod cynnar, wedi’i siapio gan rhythmau profiad bywyd alltud. Yn ddiweddarach, daeth yn un o hoelion wyth bywyd diwylliannol Toronto fel DJ a chyflwynydd radio cymunedol, lle’r oedd hi’n defnyddio sŵn, barddoniaeth ac adrodd straeon i godi lleisiau oedd yn cael eu tangynrychioli ac adeiladu cysylltiadau ar draws cymunedau.

Gan ddwyn ysbrydoliaeth o’i gwreiddiau yn Jamaica a Chanada, ei phrofiad byw o fywyd cyfoes yng Nghymru, a’i hymlyniad at wrando’n ddwfn ar y ddaear a haenau ei hanes, mae gwaith Marva yn ymwneud â’r tawelwch, y gweadau, a’r naratifau ymglymol sy’n aml yn cael eu hanwybyddu mewn cofnodion sefydliadol. Mae hi’n dod at y drafodaeth o safbwynt greddfol a chorfforol, wedi’u gwreiddio mewn gofal, cof ac ailddychmygu creadigol.

Ymchwilydd ac artist cysyniadol aml-gyfrwng o Latfia yw Dr Anna Stenina (enw artist – Anja Stenina).

Yn ei gwaith, mae hi’n archwilio urddas, gweithredu dynol, a’r rhwystrau ar y llwybr at fywyd boddhaus.

Yn ei hymchwil PhD, bu’n archwilio moeseg deall, a’r modd y mae ein dychymyg cymdeithasol wedi ei siapio gan y diwylliant sydd flaenaf o fewn ein cymdeithas.

Mae ei hymarfer gweledol yn myfyrio ar y diwylliant sydd flaenaf o safbwynt aelodau cymdeithasol sy’n cael eu hymylu. Mae Anja yn portreadu ac yn arbrofi gyda’r naratifau, y ffyrdd o gynrychioli, a’r trosiadau sydd ynghlwm â thawelu yn ei ffilmiau, gweithiau celf aml-gyfrwng a’i gwaith animeiddio 3D. Mae hi’n ceisio dal gafael ar eiliadau o fywyd bob dydd sy’n cael eu nodweddu gan ddiffyg deall. https://www.anjastenina.com/films

On the same day, there is a workshop at National Waterfront Museum at 2pm-Sounding the Hidden Thread - uncovering interwoven histories through sound and story

Book here-

Join sound artist Marva Jackson Lord, for this immersive family workshop to create a collective sound and text montage drawn from personal lived experiences and hidden histories of transformations.

This workshop also draws on their current exhibition of Lal’s work- "Several Stages of Purification" and the stages of transformation from Welsh copper to Indian brass. Delving into the hidden stories of artist Lal Davies' grandparents and their journey from India to Wales, and referencing the soundscapes in the 6 beautiful installation films shown around the Museum

Ar yr un diwrnod, mae gweithdy yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau am 2pm- Sounding the Hidden Edau - datgelu hanesion cydblethedig trwy sain a stori

Archebwch yma-

Ymunwch â'r artist sain Marva Jackson Lord, ar gyfer y gweithdy teulu trochol hwn i greu montage sain a thestun ar y cyd wedi'i dynnu o brofiadau personol a hanesion cudd o drawsffurfiadau.

Mae'r gweithdy hwn hefyd yn tynnu ar eu harddangosfa gyfredol o waith Lal- "Sawl Cam o Buro" a chamau'r trawsnewidiad o gopr Cymreig i bres Indiaidd. Yn ymchwilio i straeon cudd neiniau a theidiau'r artist Lal Davies a'u taith o India i Gymru, ac yn cyfeirio at y tirweddau sain yn y 6 ffilm osod hardd a ddangosir o amgylch yr Amgueddfa.

Dr Darren Chetty

Marva Jackson Lord

Lal Davies

Anja Stenina