bronze

In the summer of 2008 the Vale of Glamorgan Council appointed artist Charles Gurrey and poet Gillian Clarke to create a roundel for the newly redesigned public space in front of the Civic Offices.

To the left of the path leading to the main entrance of the Civic Offices from Holton Road is the Merchant Seaman’s Memorial and to the right is a new semi-circular seating area. The roundel is set into the paving within the seating area.

The brief to the artists was to create an artwork which in some way interpreted the concepts of civic and citizenship and to reflect Barry – the town and its citizens. However, this needed to be done with very few words in order to fit the space and in addition the poetic text needed to be in both Welsh and English. Gillian Clarke devised the following succinct lines which curve around within the circle:

“Severn tides lap Harbour and Knap
coal, wind and sea
- our history”

“Llanw a lli a llongau glo
dros y môr
- ein hanes ni”

Charles Gurrey designed the letters which were cast in bronze and set into a single piece of granite. The shapes of the letters are bold and sculptural, contemporary and legible, and suit the meaning of the text – Barry’s current day pride in its history. The background to the letters has a green, aged bronze patina whilst the letters standing proud are a shinier golden bronze but with a rubbed texture which has also picked up the green patina.

Charles Gurrey
Following a BA in Philosophy Politics and Economics at Oxford and an MPhil in Philosophy at Cambridge, Gurrey completed a five-year apprenticeship as architectural carver and decorative sculptor in Dick Reid's workshop in York. He then remained at that workshop as Principal Assistant until 1994 when he became a self-employed architectural carver and sculptor. Gurrey’s commissions include several works for York Minster, the complete scheme of figurework in stone for the West Front of Guildford Cathedral, and a sculpture for Dunorlan Park incorporating text by Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate at the time.

This public art project is the first of many to be commissioned for Barry Town Centre in the next few years as part of the ongoing regeneration of the town centre. A transformation has already taken place with the refurbishment of the Town Hall, King Square and Central Park - the first phase of regeneration work.

A public art strategy for Barry Town Centre was completed by Celfwaith in the summer of 2007 and this paving art project is the first public art project to be implemented from the strategy. The second phase of regeneration was to widen the pavements of Holton Road and install new street furniture to give more priority to the pedestrian.

There are 120 paving slabs with art designs integrated into the pavement along Holton Road, located at the junction points. Artists Heather Parnell, David Mackie and Andrew Rowe developed the theme for the artwork with children from two local Schools - Holton Rd Primary and St Helen's RC Junior Schools. Shops past and present and the types of wares shown in window displays were researched and children drew objects they imagined would be sold at chemists, toy shops, green grocers, hardware stores, confectioners, stationers and haberdashery shops.

The artists created the final designs, which have an almost trompe l'oeil effect, to look like shopping bags dropped on the floor with the contents falling out scattered across the pavement. The designs were etched into the paving slabs and filled in with a tough charcoal coloured paint to look literally like pencil drawings on the pavement. Within each design there is also an item in bronze relief such as a pencil, an orange or biscuits, to add colour and shine.