Cardiff art : Cader Idris

I’ve sat and eaten my lunch on it, I’ve sheltered in its lee from driving wind and rain, but it was only recently that I finally found out more about this hulking artwork.

This is Cader Idris, a sculpture that was first sited in the large square outside Cardiff Central Station in 1999 but was moved ten years later to Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve. As the English section of the inscription on the plaque adjacent to the sculpture reads:

The mountains, lakes and valleys of Wales have inspired this sculpture, and in particular Cader Idris, in Snowdonia.

Naturally, many Welsh poets have found similar inspiration and it is those verses which reflect this subject that have been chosen here. All of them are by Welsh poets and in their original language, be it Welsh or English. The englyn is a unique verse form characterised by the particular setting of the lines. Four englynion are included in this selection, and the one by Rhys Dafis was especially composed for this sculpture.

At this point I was somewhat confused by the references to poetry inscriptions as I hadn’t noticed any – more on that below.

Cader Idris was created by William Pye, a London-born artist who studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 1961 to 1965, and has since taught and exhibited his work in museums and art galleries around the world. Although the design and dimensions of the Cardiff work were very much influenced by the Welsh mountains, Pye writes that many of his other creations have been inspired ‘by the extraordinary qualities of water and [he is] fascinated by the natural laws of hydrostatics and how these can be manipulated.’ Some of you may have seen the magnificent font he created for Salisbury Cathedral in 2008, or perhaps you’ve seen the shimmering Slipstream as you’ve passed through Gatwick Airport’s north terminal, or you may have encountered Chalice, within the precincts of 123 Buckingham Palace Road in London. Pye is a prolific creator and the list of his works is a long one.   

Returning to Cader Idris, Pye writes that his inspiration came partly from a painting of the mountain by Richard Wilson (1714-82), which Pye says ‘has been a particular favourite of mine since my schooldays and holidays in Wales. This painting has inspired me to create a number of sculptures, the Cader Idris Series.’      

Cader Idris is 13 feet (4 metres) tall and made from a combination of Woodkirk sandstone and Welsh blue pennant slate, which the sculptor explains as follows on his website: ‘Water is inferred at the centre of the structure where the darker pennant stone represents a cwm (circular lake) at the foot of an escarpment.’ Pye goes on: ‘The bronze element of the sculpture suggests a rock outcrop and is set with verses in Welsh and English, all by Welsh poets.’

Now I was even more confused, as it seems I had missed both poetry inscriptions and the ‘bronze element’, so I returned to the sculpture for another look. Still nothing. Then, after much searching, I discovered that the artwork was altered when it was moved. When it was located in central Cardiff, it had a small step built into one side and, more importantly, there was an additional rectangular piece adjacent to the stone ‘mountain’, a piece that was made of bronze and that had the poetry, the englyns, inscribed on one side. (There’s a photo of the original artwork on the VADS website here.)   

I haven’t been able to find any explanation for why the artwork was altered. Nor have I discovered what happened to the ‘bronze element’. To my eye, though Cader Idris still has a significant visual impact in its new setting, the piece has been diminished and much of its meaning obscured by the loss of the 'outcrop' and its poetry, and that seems a great shame.