Derelict Penarth estate inspires Cardiff artist (From Penarth Times)

Derelict Penarth estate inspires Cardiff artist

4:20pm Saturday 28th July 2012 in News

PENARTH'S derelict Billy Bank Estate has inspired a Cardiff artist to create his latest 'masterpiece'.
Geraint Evans currently has his work on show at the Welsh Artist of the Year Exhibition at St David's Hall, Cardiff.
Geraint, who was born in Ely and now lives in Riverside, Cardiff, was drawn to the boarded up derelict housing estate because of it's 'apocalyptic landscape'.
Geraint said: "During 2012, the apocalyptic landscape doesn't just bare its weight in our thoughts and in our minds. It already exists if you seek it; in our boarded up city centres, our forgotten social housing projects and in the media. In a time so desperately in need of social housing, the Billy Banks Estate in Penarth is another example of the bureaucracy that has failed the people in need of a basic requirement for human existence."
The ink drawing, titled 'Billy Banks Estate, Penarth', is among those on show in the exhibition until August 6.
Geraint graduated as a bachelor of fine art from Swansea Metropolitan University in 2009 and has since exhibited many times in the UK and abroad.
"Now completely abandoned except for the infrequent visits from artists or vandals, the derelict streets and forgotten homes of the Billybanks crumble as Mother Nature thrives, taking back what's rightfully hers," he added.
"The jungle-like ruins give us a glimpse of a post-human world where the birds can be heard singing and the animals walk fearlessly through cobbled streets, a playground of new possibility where destruction is creation and beauty sublime."