Diary of an artist writer online

How do you judge whether an exhibition is successful?

Well, one criteria is to look at the Visitors Book. How many people have signed it?

In less than a week over 100 people have written in the one for the Children of Craig-y-nos exhibition in Swansea museum.

This is yet more evidence, if it was still needed, that the project has touched the heart of the community, for it has opened up a subject, once taboo, dealing with nearly 40 years of lost Welsh history, how children were locked away.

Roy Harry cut the ribbon yesterday morning in Swansea museum officially opening The Children of Craig-y-nos exhibition.

An ex-patient himself he made a very moving speech and dedicated the exhibition to those children who never made it- "the lost children of Craig-y-nos".

It reduced one museum official to tears.

Reason for absence : I've gone down with shingles ( and yes thanks I am recovering!) we have just had our garden, along with four others in the area, open to the public to raise money for charities which has meant an inordinate amount of time spent out there . (The garden includes sculptures ,my own and commissioned, text art and sound installations and yes I am influenced by Ian `Hamilton Finlay's garden which is about 40 miles away).

The photograhic exhibition Children of Craig-y-nos opens tomorrow in Swansea museum. This exhibition nearly didnt happen….three weeks ago we learnt that the exhibition curator had gone off on holiday and left no instructions/information about it.

Then a member of staff recalled seeing the archive boxes in the cellar…

Fortunately Dr Carole Reeves, the historian from The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, was able to go to Wales and sort it out. She spent yesterday mounting the exhibition with the help of others involved in this community based project.

Tomorrow morning it opens officially for two months.

My video "Dreams and Conflicts" which I uploaded to Youtube a year ago has suddenly started to generate a wealth of comments – for no apparent reason!

<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/user/annshaw"> Venice Biennale</a>

I made it from "mashing "images taken from the Venice Biennale 2003.

Here's some of the comments:

ArseBottom

Mytholgys time lapse into todays world

DbOt456 (

It's like an acid trip one time……cool video!

adaminho1994 (

#########

miihq (

scary… :s

ben401334 (

woow beastality

lostsoul343

I don't think that word means what you think it means….

ben401334 (

sure lol

danoFlow

lol indeed

dizydaisy

creepy

Moou93

very scary! =(

DanskWolf (

uuhi… i think this creatures are a kind of cute^^

vintagecries (

why do people post these videos,,, with no explanation

schlow09

bucause there is no one single explanation, its open to the interpretation of each individual

Joeylovesrice

I think this dude is possessed…seriously.

TheGreatVax

1:54 is fake, its also able to find in wikipedia, that fake was made to scare people away from genetic tests!

that rat-hybrid thingy, i dont know but it seems to be fake too

bradondo

How can a work of art be fake (unless a forgery of another's work)? These are pieces from a bi-annual art show! The pig sculpture may have originated as what you say, but in the context of art there can be nothing "fake." Besides, Wikipedia is notorious for inaccurate information. Somebody may have seen the thing at an art show, snapped a picture of it then made up a story to post. I'm not saying this is what happened, but Wikipedia is a first source, not a conclusive source.

Just back from a week at the Hay Book Festival – think of Glastonbury, mud, rain, tents and wellingtons only this is for books, there's no music and the clientele are…er… older.

Some very interesting speakers including Sam Taylor Wood talking about and showing her new short film. She was asked who was "her target audience" ( ouch!).

Bought a sculpture by Dominic Clare,"Furrowed Brow", a giant primitive head carved out of oak. I love his work. He spent his early years in Africa.

Arrive back to a pile of letters including one wanting to buy my book. Will be glad when this project is finished and I can get back to making my videos.