Public Preview: Thursday 9 October, 6-8pm. All welcome

Ffotogallery Project Space

The Valleys is characterized as a place beneath the stars, above the anthracite, below the slag tips, amongst the spills and spoils. This space has been routinely lauded as a place of beauty and of extraction. Landscapes are good from afar, and communities far from good. 

Rhys Slade-Jones is an artist born and reared here in these valleys. In this exhibition the artist considers The Valleys archive in conversation and disagreement with their own contributive works, alongside presentation from family archives, and found objects.

Cwm Here Now is a disruption and gathering of fragmented histories, both material and imagined. Rhys invites you to familiar terrains, to question familial bonds and to reframe, and readdress the histories and hypocrisies laid in The Valleys. 

About the commission:

This commission was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of Ffotogallery’s ongoing archive project. Research into the Ffotogallery archive revealed a lack of diversity, with communities such as queer and disabled people underrepresented in the collection.

To address this, Ffotogallery commissioned two artists—one LGBTQIA+, one disabled—to explore the archive and create new work in response. The resulting pieces will be acquired into the collection, expanding and diversifying the archive to better reflect Ffotogallery’s values and mission.

Following an open call, Rhys Slade-Jones was selected for the LGBTQIA+ artist commission, and Durre Shahwar selected for the Disabled artist commission, Durre’s work will be shown later this year and into early 2026.