A new digital commission by Jack Lewis in response to the theme Politics, Protest and Activism.
LEWIS, Jack, Bards of Wales © Jack Lewis
This piece reflects the poem created by Janos Arrany in 1857 titled similarly which depicts an imagined resistance of the Welsh bards against King Edward the 1st after his brutal conquest and subjection of the country. One by one each bard refuses and is slain: they are executed and burned alive singing of how King Edward had brought nothing but woe and desolation in his wake. This poem cleverly uses the historical tension between Wales and England as a mask for the poet's own country of Hungary and their similar relationship with neighbouring Austria, who had not long brutally repressed an uprising before Janos was commissioned by the Austrian emperor to create a poem like the bards of Wales to sing his praises.
Jack Lewis Biography
My painting practice explores Welsh identity through landscape, community, history, and folklore. Using mountains, ruins, language, and everyday people, I create bold, angular paintings with thick, textured surfaces that emphasise weight and place. The work considers Welshness as both shared memory and lived experience, combining myth, history, and ordinary stories to show identity as something constructed and evolving. In a wider context, these paintings respond to the underrepresentation of Welsh culture. By foregrounding local narratives, people, and places, the work asserts cultural visibility and invites broader engagement with questions of heritage, belonging, and identity within a global context.
