Holyhead Gateway

2006

This sculpture sits mid-way on the millennium link bridge between the port and the town. Knowing the power of text to draw the viewer, I commissioned bi-lingual text from poet Menna Elfyn specifically to respond to the notion of gateway and threshold. She created text that referenced the act of entering the country of Wales and the imaginative integration of text adds a layer of detail that has been well received, Chalon Lan being a well-known Welsh hymn.

The sculpture celebrates the two slates of North Wales – individually shaped thin blue-grey roofing slates from Blaenau Ffestiniog and thick purple slabs from Bethesda. The layout of text and slab cutting was achieved through close liaison with stone specialists Cerrig Slate and Granite Ltd of Pwllheli, with whom I frequently work. The sculpture was originally lit at night by fused-glass units that I created in collaboration with glass artist Bill Swann of Porthmadog.

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