  Oriel / Gallery
|
Lluniau o enw yw’r rhain, nid lluniau
o le.
Fel cân, mae enw lle yn deffro llu o straeon. Mae rhywbeth
amwys iawn yn enw’r lle hwn: Ffarwel Rock. Heb weld llun
o’r lle, mae modd dyfeisio llu o straeon amdano, yn dibynnu
ar ein personoliaeth ni bob un, ac ar ein profiadau a’n
hemosiynau, ar y lle rydym ar ein ffordd iddo, ac o ble y daethom,
pa lyfrau rydym wedi eu darllen, pa gerddoriaeth rydym yn ei mwynhau.
Mae fy nelweddau i yr un mor amwys.
Gwelais yr enw hwn gyntaf ar fap – ac mae darllen y map
yn iawn yn gam cyntaf hollbwysig. Term glofaol a daearegol yw
Farewell Rock; mae’n canu’n iach i’r glo sy’n
brigo yn y fan honno. Roedd y glowyr yn gwybod pan gyrhaeddent
y graig hon nad oedd dim diben twrio ymhellach gan mai dyma ddiwedd
y glo.
Cyd-ddigwyddiad bendigedig ydyw bod Ffarwel Rock ar y Mynydd Du
uwchben Dyffryn Aman, dafliad carreg o Gwmllynfell, y pentref
lle magwyd fi, a dau dafliad carreg o Rydaman, lle rwy’n
byw nawr. Fel cynifer o bobl, teithiais heibio i Dro’r Derlwyn,
lleoliad Ffarwel Rock, ar yr heol dros y Mynydd Du o Frynaman
i Langadog, gannoedd o weithiau. Serch hynny, ni chefais fy ysbrydoli
i wneud delwedd yma nes gweld yr enw. Yr enw sy’n fy nenu,
ac i ryw raddau, dyw sut mae’r lle’n edrych go iawn
ddim mor bwysig â’r ddelwedd y mae’r enw’n
ei chreu. Delweddau o ‘ddim byd’ yw’r rhain,
mewn gwirionedd – os yw’r fath gysyniad yn bosib –
er mwyn i ni daflunio ein dehongliad emosiynol ni arnynt. Wedi
gweld delwedd o ddim byd un waith, rhaid edrych amdani dro ar
ôl tro ar ôl tro.
Ers gweld yr enw, rwyf wedi bod yn dod yma’n wythnosol.
Serch hynny, nid oes delwedd yn amlygu’i hun yn aml iawn;
a dweud y gwir, dim ond rhyw ddeg o weithiau yn y pedair blynedd
diwethaf yr wyf wedi llwyddo i weld y peth rwy’n edrych
amdano. Ac wedi dweud hynny, mae pob delwedd yn wahanol am fy
mod i’n wahanol bob tro yr af yno. Fel y dywedodd R. Williams
Parry: ‘Hon ydyw’r afon, ond nid hwn yw’r dwr…’ |
These are images of a name, not a place.
Like a song, a place-name can stir many stories. There is something
very ambiguous about the name of this place: Farewell Rock. Without
seeing its picture, we could invent hundreds of stories about
it, depending on our individual personality, and on our experiences
and emotions, on where we are going and where we have been, what
books we have read and what music we enjoy. My images are similarly
ambiguous.
I first saw this name on a map, and reading the map correctly
is the all-important first step. Farewell Rock is a mining and
geological term; it bids ‘farewell’ to the coal which
comes to the surface there. The miners knew when they reached
this rock that there was no point digging further as that was
the end of the coal.
It is a sublime coincidence that Farewell Rock is on the Black
Mountain above the Amman Valley, a stone’s-throw from Cwmllynfell,
where I was raised and two stone’s-throws from Ammanford
where I now live. Like so many people, I have travelled past Tro’r
Derlwyn, the location of Farewell Rock, on the road over the Black
Mountain from Brynaman to Llangadog, hundreds of times. However,
I was only moved to make an image here after I discovered its
name. It is the name which compels me and, to some extent, how
the place looks in reality is less important than the images which
the name conjur. These are images of ‘nothing’ in
many ways – if such a notion is possible – on which
we project our emotional interpretation. Once one has seen the
image of nothing, one is compelled to look for it again and again
and again.
Since I saw the name, I have been coming here every week. But
despite my gazing, an image rarely presents itself; indeed, it
is only maybe ten times in the last four years that I’ve
suceeded in seeing the thing I’m looking for. Furthermore,
each image is different because I am different each time I go
there. In the words of Heraclites: ‘You cannot step into
the same river twice…’ |
