Cardiff

Artists Heather Parnell and David Mackie were appointed by Cardiff Council’s Neighbourhood Renewal team to work with pupils at Ysgol Mynydd Bychan to design an artwork or series of artworks for Canada Road.

In considering the site and the school, two themes became apparent to the artists as the most suitable themes to explore with the school pupils. The first theme was inspired by the area’s street names – named after the colonies – Canada, Africa, Australia, Newfoundland and New Zealand. Pupils worked with the artists to interpret images of art, design and botany from these countries through drawing motifs and patterns.

The other theme was textiles since Ysgol Mynydd Bychan has many examples of textiles from around the world hanging on the corridor walls. Textile patterns inspired some of the individual motifs but more significantly, the overall design of the artwork makes reference to the pattern of a traditional Welsh blanket.

The result is a paving ‘blanket’ created from a patchwork of 44 unique drawings by the school children, who were delighted to see their drawings permanently installed outside their school. There was much excitement the morning after the installation!

The technique used to recreate the children’s drawings on the paving slabs is to produce a template for each design with a resist where there is no line, so that when the slab is grit-blasted only the design appears. The indentation of the line is then filled with a toughened paint, in this case a dark charcoal grey colour. The country names are inset into the paving slabs in stainless steel.

The scheme was officially opened on 13th April 2011.

Media coverage: http://www.welshicons.org.uk/news/cardiff/canada-road-transformation/

This striking bespoke bench is a collaboration between artist blacksmith and sculptor Andrew Rowe and light artist Simon Fenoulhet.

Cardiff County Council commissioned the two artists to create the sculptural seating as part of the improvement of Delta Street - a key priority within the Cowbridge Road East Regeneration Strategy. The scheme reclaimed an area of highway to create new pedestrian public space at the heart of the busy shopping area of Canton. As well as designing a bespoke bench the artists also collaborated with the scheme engineer and planning officer on the overall shape of the space and location of trees. This was not a straightforward task since there are a number of services below the site including a gas pipe.

The bench itself is shaped like a small and a large ‘C’ interlocking. This shape is designed to allow groups of people to sit together in a more sociable way than is possible with a standard bench design. The two ‘C’ shapes are cantilevered from the central point and seem to hover over the pavement. At night, hidden lighting within the bench gives it a new lease of life, enhancing its shape and creating an attractive ambience for the night-time economy of Cowbridge Road East.

Delta Street is now a natural focal point along Cowbridge Road East and a popular resting place for shoppers and those on their lunch break!

press coverage:
http://www.welshicons.org.uk/news/cardiff/delta-street-regeneration/

This colourful painting scheme is the design of artist Andrew Smith, an abstract painter based in North Wales.

The railway bridge parapet had fallen into disrepair, with rust patches and flaking paint, giving a negative impression of the area. However, the plans to re-paint it were the final part of the Splott Road Neighbourhood Renewal Scheme (NRS), which has entailed a variety of improvements including the replacement of solid, grey shop shutters, new bins, cycle stands, and bollards, and brighter lighting. During public consultation, re-painting the bridge was one of the most popular aspects of the renewal scheme.

Celfwaith was approached in September 2009 to advise on how an artist might work on the scheme and offered various options for the artist selection process. Given that the funding for the scheme was limited to the financial year, and also given that Network Rail had a list of preferred painting contractors, it was decided that an artist would be appointed on a design only basis with a supervisory rather than active role in the implementation.

A design would be needed that would be simple enough to be carried out by painting contractors and which would also be cost effective to maintain. A limited palette of five colours was decided on and a brief was prepared aimed at artists whose practice involved flat areas of colour and simple forms.

Andrew Smith was appointed based on his bold use of colour and his ability to transform figurative motifs from his surroundings such as architectural details, or a view on the horizon, into abstract forms in his work. Local school pupils took part in a photography workshop to take photographs of their area which were used by Andrew to inform his design.

The result is a bright, dynamic and abstract design which references design motifs in the railings, porch tiles, and brickwork of houses in Splott as well as shapes that can be seen in the industrial area south of Splott.

media coverage:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/04/19/if-a-job-s-worth...

The vision for this project was to create a new park with a variety of play facilities out of an empty, flat field. Artist Andrew Small was selected to collaborate with landscape architect Ian Maddox on the overall design of the park and to create bespoke play structures.

Background

In October 2006, a report ‘Opportunities for Public Art in Adamsdown’ was commissioned by Cardiff Council to identify opportunities for public art in Adamsdown. Consultation was carried out with the local people of Adamsdown over a three month period and the report identified particular sites and themes for public art, which included suggestions that:

• The work should be uniquely created for the area
• The work, no matter what format it takes, should endeavour to be interactive in some way e.g. kinetic art, tactile art, evolving or changing work
• It should not be a traditional image of public art i.e. Bronze figures/statues like in Queens Street
• The work should challenge or push the viewer, and not be afraid to make a statement
• Sufficient time is taken in the development process of artwork to ensure that the community can build a sense of ownership towards it.

Project

In the summer of 2007 Cardiff County Council embarked on a project to transform an empty field in Adamsdown into a valuable amenity for the local community.

Artist Andrew Small was appointed to collaborate with landscape architect Ian Maddox on the overall design of the new park. Their task was to make the flat open space, used primarily by dog walkers and rarely used by children to play, into a flexible park and play area. The Council held a number of consultation events to find out what the local community wanted and did not want within the scheme.

Among other needs and constraints, Andrew Small and Ian Maddox aimed to create:

• sheltered spaces, since the field was windswept at times
• a designated space for children to play, where dog walkers would not go
• a defined ‘kick about’ area which allowed enough space for a game of football but which could also be safely walked around by others using the park
• creative play equipment aimed at a younger age group (11 and under)
• pathways and seating so that the whole of the space would be used
The result is a park with three main areas:
1. a defined play area at the front (along Constellation Road) with play structures designed and made by Andrew Small on a child safe surface;
2. a kick about area in the middle of the field with low mounding around it on both sides to define the space and protect people walking along the path from finding themselves in the middle of a game!
3. A less formal play area at the back of the field with a high mound incorporating a slide and other structures around it for climbing, swinging and jumping off.

Having developed a number of concept designs for various play structures, Andrew Small was commissioned to create two of them and consulted with a Health and Safety specialist at the detailed design stage. Andrew then fabricated these two structures which he called the Spending Time Machine and the Triphid. The Spending Time Machine is a curved wooden platform with a series of stainless steel arches above it as a roof. Children climb inside it and on top of it, and slide and run up and down the curved surface. It can be anything they want it to be – a space ship, a boat, a house, a den, a tunnel, a submarine, a cave and so on. It is a structure which allows their imagination free rein.

The Triphid is a climbing and balancing structure in galvanised steel, painted a deep blue. The tentacles can be climbed, swung on, walked along, and the soft ‘wet pour’ surface on the ground ensures that children can be more adventurous and risk falling off. The coloured patterns on the soft surface complement the Triphid and can form part of its use in a game.

These days, at the time when the school day has just finished you’ll see many children making full use of Anderson Field, whereas before the park was created, it would have been an empty site.

read more at
http://www.andrewsmall.org.uk/Andrew_Small/Blog/Entries/2010/3/14_Anders...