Green Man brings the visual arts out of the gallery and into the festival field

Art galleries are fantastic places to get creative inspiration, and most of us probably don't take advantage of them enough. But here at Creative Boom, we also love the idea of occasionally taking art out of the gallery and exhibiting it in a different kind of environment altogether.

Whether that be Murugiah's window installation for Refugee Week on London's South Bank, Baker & Borowski's use of AR to 'rewild' a shopping centre, or Liam Hopkins' hybrid pop-up art gallery come food and drink spot in Manchester, showcasing art in the "real world" makes it more accessible to people who wouldn't usually visit a gallery, generates a different kind of atmosphere, and often provides a radically different perspective on the work.

And let's face it, what better place to experience art than at a festival? You're in the right mindset to appreciate fresh and innovative creative ideas. You're nice and relaxed and have time to appreciate the work without being interrupted by your phone (which is undoubtedly out of service) or other commitments.

In short, we love the idea of showing art at a festival, so we're psyched that the folks behind Green Man, an independent music and arts festival held annually in the Brecon Beacons, Wales, feel the same way.

New commissions

Best of all, it's not just about stuff you can see elsewhere. Since 2016, Green Man has been commissioning visual artists to make new work specifically in response to the festival site, supported by a developmental artist residency. "Most festivals would just call this fun decor, but ours veers far more to gallery quality installations," the organisers explain.

Visitors to this year's festival, which took place earlier this August, saw two new commissions from artists using moving image, animation and performances dealing with everything from Drag Kings to plant-based psychedelics.

One was Cinzia Mutigli, whose animated film work draws on rhythm and pace, mood, and phases of time to move back and forth between plant-based psychedelics, capitalism and alternative systems of knowing.

Her commission for the festival could be viewed across the pond, at the foot of Fortune Falls on the Green Man site. It draws on rhythm and pace, mood, and phases of time to move back and forth between plant-based psychedelics, capitalism and alternative systems of knowing. The work grew from the artist's interest in the related concepts of spirit and spirituality, personal psychologies and well-being.

Green Man also commissioned Kathryn Ashill to develop a unique artwork, and she came up with something quite unusual. Festival-goers could wander down to the Pine Woods, behind the Walled Garden, to explore the narrative of a fake cowboy town inside 'Gunsmoke City'.

The work was based on a real Gunsmoke City in the Swansea Valley village of Seven Sisters, an unlikely setting for the masculine idyll of the Wild West.

Themes of the frontier and escapism were pushed through the imagery in the film and the set. Moving images depicted Drag Kings playing the leading cowboy figures – a tongue-in-cheek critique of the genre of the Western and gender norms – and the work also incorporated hand-painted animation. Gunsmoke City was commissioned in partnership with GS Artists Swansea.

For more on the art behind Green Man 2023, read our report on Murugiah's illustrations and branding.