Cardiff Bay: Adventurers Quay artworks

This is Adventurers Quay, a large residential development on the edge of Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay and, as you can see, around the ground floor of the building, at pedestrian eye level, there's an artwork.

The artwork, which was installed in 1999, has two components, one a mosaic of ceramic sails coloured blue and white, the other, perhaps less obvious, the grilles that cover the window openings to the car park inside the building.

The 'Terracotta Sails' mosaic is the work of ceramicist David Mackie (b. 1965), a prolific artist whose website lists completed artworks dating from 1994 to 2024, several of which can be seen in the Cardiff area. As well as the highly glazed sails, there's an undulating row of terracotta bricks fashioned to resemble a rope running along the lower part of the artwork. I quite like this piece, though I think the concept lacks imagination, sails being a very common theme among the artworks around Cardiff Bay.

Passers-by might be forgiven for not realising that the 11 steel grilles covering the car park openings are an artwork, so simple are they. These are the work of Andrew Rowe (b. 1963), whose DAR Design website describes him as a 'designer, sculptor and artist blacksmith', who works 'to commission, providing unique design solutions for public art, architectural metalwork, street furniture and sculpture'.

Cardiff Bay: Radio Flat Holm sculpture

In mid 2024 this four-metre-high sculpture of an old-fashioned style of radio appeared on Cardiff Bay Barrage. Financed by a National Lottery Fund Project that's supposed to be about rejuvenating Flat Holm Island, the hardwood artwork was designed and created by Glenn Davidson to celebrate the first radio transmission over open water by Guglielmo Marconi on 13 May 1897. Only that radio transmission was between Flat Holm and Lavernock, not Cardiff, and Marconi is not mentioned on the adjacent plaque because it turns out he was a fascist with close links to Benito Mussolini, and the sculpture has been sited so that viewers looking at it actually have their backs towards Flat Holm. So I fail to see how this sculpture is going to 'act as a symbol and encourage them [viewers] to explore the full range of the island's history', as envisioned by a Cardiff Council spokesperson. 

Almost two years on from its installation, the sculpture is already looking worn, its varnished surface badly affected by the elements, as is to be expected in such an exposed seaside environment. It will be interesting to see if Cardiff Council maintains and/or refurbishes the sculpture, something they have failed to do with almost every other public artwork around Cardiff Bay.

Cardiff Bay: World Harmony Peace Statue

Given the current state of the world, I thought this peace statue, located next to Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay, would be an appropriate post for this week. The statue, sculpted by Kaivalya Torpy and depicting Sri Chinmoy, was erected to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Harmony Run.
 

The information on the adjacent plaque explains:

Every year the World Harmony Run carries a flaming torch, as a symbol of harmony, in a relay run around the world. Running from country to country, and across several continents, the torch is passed from hand to hand and from heart to heart.

and

One of the many throughout the world, this statue was unveiled on 11 March 2012 by the Right Honourable, The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Professor Delme Bowen, when members of the Urdd Gobatih Cyrmu and the World Harmony Run set out together on the Welsh leg of the World Harmony Run's UK tour.

The Urdd is Wales' leading youth organisation and has for over 60 years shared a message of peace and goodwill with the world.

The plaque suggests: we all need to 'hold the torch [even if metaphorically] and make a wish for peace'. I'm willing to give it a try.

Cardiff Bay: Panorama Stone

When I first photographed the Panorama Stone, it wasn't where it is now. Thirty years after it was installed in 1993, this artwork was relocated to make way for a much larger sculpture depicting three black Cardiff men, who originally played amateur rugby union in Wales but made the move to play professional rugby league for English clubs. (That sculpture will feature in a forthcoming blog post.)
 

The Panorama Stone wasn't moved very far though; it is in Cardiff Bay's Landsea Square, just around the corner from its initial location. The stone was one of the many public artworks commissioned by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation around the time the Barrage was being completed and the Bay was being redeveloped as a 'tourist destination', and was designed to show those locations around the world that had strong associations with the Bay, with Cardiff and with Wales. The sculptor was Leonard 'Jonah' Jones (1919 – 2004), known not only for his sculptural works in slate, stone and bronze but also for his calligraphy, painting, and work in art education.

Birds: 3 Assembly Square

 If you were to google "3 Assembly Square", you would learn that it's 'a prime waterfront office development extending to a total of 65,765 sq ft over ground and five upper floors, with undercroft car parking for 70 cars'. It's one of those glass-and-steel office constructions that can be seen in any large city anywhere in the western world but, in my biased eyes, it has one redeeming feature.

At the entrance to the building stands a large plinth that supports a tiny sculpture of two anonymous (are they gulls, perhaps?) rusty looking metallic birds. I've not been able to uncover anything about the birds but they are an inspired addition to an otherwise very ordinary edifice.