For my walk this week I am looking at the first of three valley walks taken in the same place in the past week during which the weather changed dramatically from one day to the next.
Author Archives: Alastair
Architecture and Art in Cardiff City – Reviewing the Walk
Looking through the entrance archway of Cardiff City Hall towards the end of my walk this week and the National Museum of Wales, I have completed my circuit of the rectangle of classical, brutalist and functional architecture that makes up this cultural and educational sector at the approach to the city centre.
Completing the walk in the museum itself and the Artes Mundi exhibition (already visited three times), I can only recommend a visit to the show before it ends on 26th February.
Mixed Media in Cardiff City
My walk this week featured a range of mixed media. From the natural mossy trees in perspective and their shadows on buildings to a classical architectural foreground with a more modernist tower in the background; the intricacy of sculptures and the simplicity of the structures within walls along with urban pedestrian functionality. It makes for quite a mixed bag and all to be seen within a hundred yards or so in the centre of Cardiff City.
Perspective on Brutalist Architecture
My walk around Cardiff this week encompassed not only the classical cultural architecture of the National Museum and adjacent municipal buildings – it also included the brutalist concrete architecture of the University of Wales buildings situated in the same block. The area is interspersed with beautiful formal gardens but it is not this that I was focusing on during this walk – I also get great enjoyment from looking at the various patterns, textures and perspectives created by the architects.
My Walk this Week – Culture, Classical and Concrete
My walk this week takes a tour around the classical and concrete block of cultural, educational and municipal buildings in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. Amgueddfa in Welsh or museum in English, this first image shows a segment of the display block alongside the National Museum of Wales which currently shows the banner for the Arts Mundi 7 exhibition. This is a biannual international art exhibition which we have seen since it started 14 years ago. The exhibition has one of the largest prizes in the art world (£40,000).
Started in Cardiff, it is a an event of which Wales can be justly proud. It ends in cardiff on 26th February and I will be trying to get to see it for a fourth time before that. John Akomfrah is the justifiable winner on this occasion but the whole exhibition, while being largely video based, is well worth giving the time to tour fully.
Mossy Chaps and Woodland Viewpoints
Rising to higher ground on my woodland walk this week I found much moss. Covering this birch to the height it does made me thing of those fleecy chaps you used to see in cowboy films – of course they were not green but all the same . . .
Weird Findings on a Woodland Walk
On my walk in the woods this week I took a route I have not followed for a long time. I must have known that this weird old rusty abandoned pipe and the farm equipment was there because it has clearly been there for a long time – I guess I’d just forgotten.
