Wreck brings together new and existing works by Plymouth-based artist Llyr Davies, inspired by the tale of ‘The Wreckers’ and the many wrecks around the South Devon coastline.

Davies grew up on the South Wales coast with stories about shipwrecks and wreckers - ruthless gangs who lit false beacons to lure seamen to their doom. Whilst visiting Kingsbridge, he came across a copy of Ken Radford’s book, ‘Tales of South Wales’ in a local charity shop, which recounts three tales of wreckers at large on the South Wales Coast. This became the starting point for the new works, exploring the theme of shipwrecks in the landscape and the traces of humanity in these tragic tales, which Davies explores from different points of view: the wreckers themselves, the crews of the boats that fell foul of their crimes and those witnessing the devastation left behind.  

The act of destruction of the wreck itself is echoed in Davies’s techniques, for example in scraping off and overlaying figurative motifs with gestural mark making. His works go through many stages before they are complete and Harbour House commissioned local photographer and videographer Dom Moore to produce a film to capture these processes and to document Davies at work.