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.

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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.

Cardiff tree perspective

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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.

University of Wales Cardiff

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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.

Amgueddfa / Museum

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Cascade Construction

Nearing The Waterside on my walk this week I have arrived at the cascade construction down which the water from a bygone reservoir tumbles and flows. Emerging from a tunnel which would once have been below a dam wall the river flows through the woodland valley on its route down to join the River Lliw.

The Afon Lliw starts in the same area – the uplands north of Swansea known as The Mawr – and is a part of our locality that I love. I produced video of a project a couple of years ago where local school children followed and researched the Lliw from source to sea – you can see the various video chapters here.

water cascade

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Town Texture, Carmarthen

The columns in front of the family courts building in the centre of Carmarthen where I have been walking this week, have texture and colour I particularly like. It looks to me as though the texture may not be from the stone that is used but from a surface addition of some sort. It doesn’t really matter to me, I just like it and took several photos. I selected two to post here and debated with myself whether or not to leave the blue of the shop behind the columns in the frame. I found that keeping it in helps both the perspective overall and also the focus on the texture and pattern of the second column.

Carmarthen columns

Monochrome Madness – A monochrome version of this image can be seen on Leanne Cole’s Photography blog post MM 3-40

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Musket View from the Salt House

Having returned from the Horton and Port Eynon RNLI station, we set off again in the opposite direction for this Taste of Gower walk and visited The Old Salt House which stands on the rocks at the southern end of the beach. Originally used, as the name suggests, to harvest sea salt, the building is now in ruins but has an interesting history which can be read at the link above.

salt house window

View from a musket loop in The Salt House at Port Eynon

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