In September 2013 members of an Organ Donor Committee in North Wales contacted us after viewing our Organ Donor Memorial Artwork for the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Their brief was for us to design something comparable for two of their hospitals in North Wales: Wrexham Maelor Hospital and Bangor Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital. This was the start of two extensive projects that evolved and developed culminating with impressive, unique artworks that have received a great deal of complimentary feedback, and taken Tony and myself through many demanding, yet very enjoyable processes, and a steep learning curve!
WREXHAM MAELOR HOSPITAL - The site chosen for this artwork is the atrium of the main entrance to the hospital, but above normal sightlines, as people pass through to reach their destinations within the hospital. So therefore we needed to entice the viewer to look upwards as they enter this area. An important feature of the entrance corridor is the pitched glass atrium that floods the area with natural light.
GLASS BUTTERFLIES – RESEARCH AND MANY AMENDMENTS! We had designed a simple, but attractively shaped butterfly that we thought would be easily achievable in the medium of glass. It turned out that – yes this could easily be made in glass - but only to the size of a piece of jewellery – we needed butterflies up to a wingspan of 35cms!
BANGOR YSBYTY GWYNEDD HOSPITAL The site chosen for this artwork is in a large stairwell to the side of the revolving doorway of the main entrance to the hospital. This is a large, self-contained area and we immediately visualised utilising all 4 walls to create an artwork that will be viewed through 360 degrees and from all levels. The theme we chose reflects Bangor’s coastal location and also infers the beginnings of life. Our first concepts proposed to use the medium of glass to represent the transparency of the sea and the use of slate, as the area is well known for high quality slate mining.
We researched glass artists right across the UK to find someone who could make such a large structure! Eventually we chose a glass artist with a commercial production capacity because her shapes were most similar to our original designs and we knew that the scale of the project would not phase her! But we also loved the colour and texture created with air bubbles through her fused glass fish. From initial samples we asked if it would be possible to make the bubbles even more of a feature and could the blue/green colours be intensified.
INSTALLATION AT BOTH HOSPITALS - As working hospitals operate for 24 hours, 7 days a week, installation had been planned meticulously to take place at their quietest times. At Wrexham this scenario was not necessary as the whole area was scaffolded and visitors used an adjacent entrance. Both hospitals needed to remove some signage, lighting and repaint walls, and this was completed the weekend before the main installation date.
We started on a Friday morning at Wrexham, meeting with glass artist Jo and her assistant Adrian, to help and co-ordinate the installation of the glass and steel butterfly sculpture. We then drove straight to Bangor, but following some problems with the installation of the electric winch, it was not until after 7pm that we could actually get started with the installation.
The sculpture was installed in stages starting with the hanging of the main structure of stainless steel rings and connecting wiring for the integral led spotlights to the electric winch. Next came the inner spiral of fish. Every fish had been prepared with holes drilled for fixings and then curved to match the spiral. Jo and Adrian attached the fish with fine steel cables, using a 10m boom lift and low level stepladders to reach the awkward areas.
We rose early on Sunday morning to travel back to Wrexham to complete the installation of the wall artworks with our excellent installers there too – finally finished at 5pm on Sunday! Here are some images of the installation process – which explains far more clearly than words can do!
