Collections Online
Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
Advanced Search
Banner
Large protest banner made by members of CYLCH (Cymdeithas Lesbiaid a Hoywon Cymraeg eu Hiaith) - a society for Welsh speaking gay and lesbian people. The slogan translates as “everything must change say gays and lesbians”.
At the 1992 Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth CYLCH rented a stall for the first time, and this banner was displayed at their stand. At this Eisteddfod an unknown person broke into CYLCH’s stand, wrecked the stall and defecated on the displays of books and pamphlets.
Banner made from a pink coloured plain weave cotton bed sheet. Weave count = warp 28, weft 34. All edges of the banner are turned back and machine sewn with pink cotton thread; the sides have been turned over again and roughly tacked place with white cotton thread. There is a section measuring approx 24cm x 22cm missing from the corners and there are remnants of threads and stitchmarks along the edges of the cut aways, suggesting that they had been sewn at one point and have been opened up, possibly forming a fitted bed sheet. There is a small piece of elastic protruding from the left bottom edge. Sections of the sheet at the top corners and the bottom left corner have been scrunched up and wrapped with white thread. Three long stitches have been made at the top edge using doubled white cotton thread, there is also a small gather in the sheet at the start of the stitch line where the thread has been anchored. The text is written on the banner in mostly upper case using green paint applied with a brush. Pencil and blue felt tip pen lines are visible beneath the paint, suggesting that they were made first to get the right spacing for the letters before painting.