WAGSTAFF'S

Participating artists: Zarouhie Abdalian, Saâdane Afif, Cory Arcangel, John Baldessari, Simeon Barclay, Alex Bartsch, Jacqueline Bebb, Andrea Büttner, Anne Collier, Claire Fontaine, Mario García Torres, Charles Gershom, Rebecca Gould, Gareth Griffith, Scott King, Adam McEwen, Dave Muller, Fernando Ortega, Hannah Rickards, Torbjørn Rødland, Anri Sala, Fabrice Samyn, Santo Tolone

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Historical presentations relating to Wagstaff's store and the town of Llandudno

 

WAGSTAFF’S takes as its point of departure a piano and musical instrument dealership of the same name that once occupied MOSTYN | Wales prior to it being reinstated as an art gallery in the 1970s. Originally based in Manchester, Wagstaff’s relocated to 1 Vaughan St, Llandudno in the early 1940s after the city store was demolished during World War II and in 1946 it moved to 12 Vaughan St, site of MOSTYN | Wales’ building today. The establishment of music shops such as Wagstaff’s in the late 19th century reflected the high regard in which music was held in terms of entertainment inside and outside the family home. Many of these shops have now gone out of business due to changes in technology and family priorities.

 

WAGSTAFF’S considers the long-standing connection between music and art, and records an interpretation from today’s perspective. A number of the artists featured in the exhibition have appeared together in other shows surveying the linkage between the genre of music and the field of art. In this sense, the exhibition will suggest some of music’s most embraced and debated facets: the cover, the copy and the culture of bootlegging.

 

The exhibition is presented within a format made up of four categories, taking inspiration from independent music record shops, which categorise music by genre, and which, along with musical instrument shops, have decreased in number. The categories are designed to give structure to the wide array of approaches and usages of music in the visual arts which are presented in the exhibition. The format also allows opportunities for overlaps and mixes to play out, between both the categories and the artworks presented within.

 

This exhibition is part of MOSTYN’s History Series, which since 2013, has examined the heritage of MOSTYN’s building, the town of Llandudno and links further afield. The series has presented historical artefacts and images alongside works by contemporary artists, forming a dialogue between past and present.

 

This exhibition is curated by Adam Carr, (Visual Arts Programme Curator, MOSTYN), with historical research by Jane Matthews (Engagement Manager/Research, MOSTYN) and Richard Cynan Jones (Operations and Facitilies/Research, MOSTYN).

 

WAGSTAFF'S exhibition tour and talk with Adam Carr, Jane Matthews, Richard Cynan Jones

Sunday, March 25, 11am