Students’ exhibition is inspired by Pontypool’s history (From South Wales Argus)

Students’ exhibition is inspired by Pontypool’s history

4:10pm Saturday 16th March 2013 in News

PHOTOGRAPHIC art students from Newport's University officially opened their exhibition in Pontypool.

A total of 43 second year students have spent three months in Pontypool working on a project, reFRAME, to brighten up Pontypool town centre as work continues on buildings as part of the £2.6 million Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

The students were commissioned by Torfaen council to create pieces inspired by the town’s history.

The week-long exhibition, which attracted around 100 people on its launch on Thursday night, is held at various locations including the indoor market, Crane Street, Commercial Street and George Street.

Sara Dove, 20, was showcasing her piece created using an image of The George Pub, which has been blown up and placed in an empty shop front.

She said: "I chose the image from Pontypool Museum archive as I liked it straight away. It works well to make the building look more attractive."

Jake Gardiner’s piece was blown up and hung to decorate scaffolding at the front of a building. His image shows a piece of slag from the Varteg coal heap zoomed in at 400 times magnification.

He said: "I was bored of images of beautiful landscapes and wanted to do something different. So I started looking at the manmade landscapes."

Also showcasing their works were Lauren Clithero, Rebekka Gill and Jodi Westmacott, who created a life-size version of Cluedo.

For the first time, they trialled the game with participants, who tried to solve the unsolved Pontypool murder of William Alfred Lewis in 1939.

The THI project is funded by a range of organisations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, Pontypool Regeneration Partnership and Torfaen council.