This is the new Pontypridd Sculpture that greets us as we drive into town. Public at art at its...Well, you decide, but for me it has some flaws.
The artist is Andy Hazell - sorry - Andy Hazell - and though that second link tries to explain the piece (all valleys and rail, coal, canals and chainworks) we at St Catherine's have found the simpler and more obvious explanation.
It's a presentation of the Gospel.
The boat in the middle is life, with people sailing through seeking a way forwards. The bridge on one side is a representation of the Old Ponty Bridge, but also the way that God reaches down to us, and in Jesus bridges the gap between heaven and earth to draw us home to himself. The wheel on the other is none other than a reference to our own logo, inviting people to join the worshipping family of Jesus as the best way of making life's journey across the seas of life.
So good of RCT to commission a sculpture featuring our logo at the gateway to town.
As a Gospel presentation, it's forced; as a work of art - I always think a signature piece should be simply iconic, that is, simple and iconic. This is a hodge-podge for me. Too many ideas, too many things going on. It is neither fish nor fowl. I don't mind it. I like that it's there. I think it's a bit second rate. (Perhaps a statue like the photo in the first link would have been more eye-catching??? Certainly it has local significance, without all that cod-worthiness. More, cod-piece...)
Art is glorious. This is dull. That's the bottom line for me. Please disagree and tell me why I'm wrong.
2 comments:
when i've sat in one of the bits of the bridge or the wheels I'lllet you know!
it's "clever"...it's colourful....it's "there".....
(it's also stunningly close to the logo of st caths.....)
I believe it is clever, but it does not stir me,.yes the colour red bounces of the dark green foliage,..the bridge I understand and the miners wheel, but the liner in the middle when I gather it was anchor chains we supplied,, but the cost that seems so huge,when the needs of our town are so great in other directions,....joyce.
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