Dave Lewis in Conversation

Artist Dave Lewis in conversation with ArtSway curator Peter Bonnel.

Photographer and film-maker Dave Lewis discusses his new work Field Work, a co-commission by Autograph ABP, ArtSway, and Oriel Davies Gallery.

Field Work is a new body of work generated through Lewis’ innovative combination of the role of the artist as a 'stranger', and that of the anthropologist as someone concerned with understanding cultural identity. In the process of gathering first-hand evidence in two particular locations, Sway in the New Forest in Hampshire, and Newtown in mid-Wales, Lewis draws productive parallels between these two roles, suggesting the way they pursue similar methods of investigation and share some common aims. Sway and Newtown are linked through this process of interviewing local residents and documenting events such as festivals and carnivals. At the same time there is a more reflexive moment in which the ‘stranger’ mediates on the land he sees but does not understand.

Field work was exhibited at ArtSway 6 February - 28 March 2010 and at Oriel Davies Gallery 17 April - 9 June 2010.