The Art Newspaper

Welsh rocker reveals his roots

John Cale, co-founder of the Velvet Underground, meditates on the culture, language and heritage of Wales

By Gareth Harris. Published online: 29 May 2009

Art meets rock music in Venice this summer with a new, specially commissioned audio-visual installation (Dark Days) on view from the Wales representative, John Cale, better known as the co-founder of the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed.

“Cale undertook a series of cathartic physical performances in Wales to create work that draws upon his lifelong concerns with the passing of time, the durational and the multidisciplinary nature of presentation,” said a press spokeswoman.

Cale, whose first language is Welsh, has said: “It [Venice] offers an occasion to address certain pernicious issues in my background that had lain dormant for so long.”

He left Wales to attend Goldsmiths College in London the early 1960s, and then headed off to the US. "The place [Wales] scared me; it was going nowhere," he told The Guardian.

In one scene, the artist approaches a piano in a Welsh chapel but never plays it. In another, the film reportedly focuses on his former home in the Valleys, South Wales. The Welsh landscape also plays a role, including the rugged terrain of Snowdonia.

The film’s soundtrack includes a rugby crowd singing the national anthem while the artist cites compatriot poet Dylan Thomas as a source of inspiration, reinforcing the bardic tradition of the celtic country.

The installation will be located at the Ex-Birreria, a former brewery on the island of Giudecca.

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