Pwnc: O Dywysog i Reslwr Croeswisgo / Subject: From a Prince top a Cross-dressing Wrestler

An exhibition in the UCA Farnham, Black Box, exhibition space.

‘Pwnc: O Dywysog i Reslwr Croeswisgo’ is the outcome of a month-long artists residency at The 309 Punk Project, in Pensacola, Florida, that ran through July 2024, funded by a WAI International Opportunities grant. I spent my time there researching a series of Welsh connections I’d found to the city, working with the 309’s community of musicians to turn this research into an EP of punk rock songs. The connections included Prince Madoc’s landing at the mouth of Mobile Bay, the construction of Fort Morgan at that site (named after a revolutionary soldier of Welsh extraction), the establishing of the city’s first organic-vegetarian restaurant by a Welsh Immigrant (Anne Pugh, originally of Three Cliffs Bay), a fort named ‘The Prince of Wales Redoubt’ used by the British in their unsuccessful 1783 siege of Pensacola, and the long-term residence in Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, of Welsh wrestler, Adrian Street – a series of connections ranging from a Prince to a cross-dressing wrestler. The EP makes these stories publicly accessible in a unique and original way. The EP is available across all streaming services and the project has been presented publicly as an illustrated talk and, recently, an exhibition. Physically, the work consists of a vinyl EP, a record player (playing the music from a USB drive), 6 x A0 black and white plan-prints, and multiple copies of a photocopied zine, free for visitors to take away.

Specific research question attached to this - How can a research-led practice-based project be presented in an exhibition format?