Parade
A Multi-Media sound and film installation for the people of Maindee, by the people of Maindee.
Curated and created by John Rea
A Multi-Media sound and film installation for the people of Maindee, by the people of Maindee.
Curated and created by John Rea
A Multi-Media sound and film installation for the people of Maindee, by the people of Maindee.
Curated and created by John Rea
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About

“The centre of the City is where the old monuments are, but not, for the most part, people’s lives....the centre is where you are.” Guido Guidi

Parade is a multi-media installation that presents a new and unique view of Maindee, featuring the people themselves.

Parade involves special performances of the work in Maindee Library, alongside the launch of this specially designed online portal featuring individual portraits, that highlight the personal histories, opinions, and issues that matter to the people of Maindee, in their own words. These sound-portraits will, I hope, convey something of what it means to live here in a new and revealing way, giving a platform for the people to speak; those who live, study, work, volunteer, and worship here.

The history of Maindee can be traced in the transformation of it’s buildings: in the change of their usage and function, their fall into disuse, or in their being demolished completely, and replaced with the new. But if we look more closely at this change, a picture emerges of the population over time. Also, what constitutes Maindee seems unclear; ask two people where its boundaries are, and you’ll get two different answers! Perhaps then, it can’t be thought of as a Geographical area, but rather as an attitude, a way of looking at the World. “Proper Maindee” is perhaps defined more by the people and their openness. It is in this sense of community that the truth, or truths might be revealed to us.

The parade of time is personified by an anonymous narrator, who we hear throughout the main installation. He guides us through the geographical changes to the area over the Centuries. But as time passes, we begin to hear the true voices emerging and interrupting our narrator in a new, contemporary parade. They tell us, and remind us of what it actually means to live here now, today, whilst the slowly emerging cacophony of its sounds swirl and build in an immersive journey.

This ‘sonic cartography’, or sound map, is a response to what I have discovered during my time here, namely, its uniqueness. By blending the diverse collaged voices and sounds I have attempted to reveal something of what makes this part of the City of Newport different, and a sense of what it means to live in Urban Wales in 2019. It is a new, contemporary, monument for the people of the people of Maindee, by the people of Maindee.

John Rea
Having graduated with an M.Mus. studying under the guidance of the acclaimed Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott CBE, John now works full time composing music and experimenting in installation sound, collaborating with directors, producers and performers and communities exploring a wide range of themes and ideas. His list of credits is extensive, having written music for feature films, television drama documentary, also original commissions for the concert platfrom. A notable recent collaboration was conducting the first performance of Paris 1919 in Wales with John Cale of The Velvet Underground. John has twice won BAFTA Cymru Awards in the Best Original Music category for his orchestral scores, a Dutch STEMRA Award for his album ‘Art Music & The Minimal’ for KPM/EMI. His Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales Award in 2013 has led to the creation of the installation/music work Atgyfodi, which blends the hidden voices and sounds of the archives of St Fagans National History Museum with an original musical score and installation in a site-specific, immersive experience.
Huw Talfryn Walters
Huw is a double Bafta Cymru, award winning cinematographer from Llangynwyd, he collaborated with John on the original Atgyfodi and is currently filming a cinema documentary on the conflict in Northern Ireland. On the 25th of April,2015 Huw was filming in Kathmandu when the Nepal Earthquake struck, he made 4 more visits to Nepal that year, also contributing his work to the relief effort. Huw is currently nominated for a Bafta Cymru for his camerawork on Frank Lloyd Wright, The Man Who Built America.
Llyfrgell Maindee Library
Llyfrgell Maindee Library is run by dedicated volunteers and managed by the trustees of registered charity, Maindee Unlimited. It is built upon a love for books, community solidarity, coffee and the preservation of services for future generations.
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This commission has been co-curated by Joanne Sutton (Maindee Unlimited) and Sarah Pace (Addo), and was funded as part of Finding Maindee – a three- year project supported by the Arts Council of Wales’

Ideas: People: Places strategic programme, which aims to test new models of regeneration and collaboration through the arts. Finding Maindee was part-funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Garfield Weston Charitable Trust and the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme through Newport City Council.