51°28′42″N3°10′32″W / 51.47823°N 3.17544°W
Alliance | |
---|---|
Location of Alliance in Cardiff city centre | |
Artist | Jean-Bernard Métais |
Year | 2009 |
Type | Metal sculpture |
Dimensions | 25 metres (82 ft) tall 17 metres (56 ft) diameter |
Location | The Hayes, Cardiff |
51°28′40.8″N3°10′31.44″W / 51.478000°N 3.1754000°W | |
Owner | St David's |
Alliance is a 25-metre-high (82 ft) sculpture in the centre of Cardiff, Wales, created by Paris installation artist Jean-Bernard Metais. It consists of a large, partly enamelled, stainless steel arrow, and a hoop that glows in the dark. It was financed by the St David’s shopping centre as part of a £1.5m public art scheme in the city centre, and was unveiled on 3 December 2009. [1]
Alliance's arrow and hoop seem to balance in the air. The hoop, filled with a phosphorescent liquid, is partially submerged below the pavement, with a mechanism programmed to make it rise and fall with the Bristol Channel tides. [2] [3] Métais describes the piece as "an organic clock" which "connects the place with the people". [4]
Words in both English and Welsh, written by Cardiff-based poet Peter Finch, are projected onto the pavement at night by equipment installed within the arrow. According to the developers, the text is a play on the word Cardiff, reflecting its history and the present day. [1]
The sculpture was commissioned following a national competition to find the right piece of artwork that would fit well within the city and become a new landmark. A total of 120 responses were received from artists across the globe, with just five shortlisted – England's Tony Cragg, Lulu Quinn and John Kennedy, New York City's Roxy Paine, and Métais. [4] There was concern that no Welsh artists were shortlisted; however, Wiard Sterk, representing the Welsh public arts body Safle, emphasised that Welsh artists had been considered throughout the St David's 2 commissioning programme. [5]
Métais had created artworks for cities around the world, including Allotted-Time Eclipse, an elaborate hourglass at Jardin des Plantes, France's leading botanical garden. Alliance was judged to have sufficient scale for the location at the end of The Hayes, which would sit between the multilevel Central Library, the John Lewis department store, and the St David's complex itself. [2]
Work to erect the sculpture began on 16 November 2009 and was completed within a fortnight. The sculpture was brought into the city centre on three articulated lorries and lifted into place by crane. [6] Alliance touches the ground in three places, and its foundations are three metres deep. [2]
Describing the letters etched beneath the sculpture, poet Mab Jones described Alliance as "impressive", saying "Cardiff has poetry ... etched on her skin. I mean this literally.". [7]
Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of 362,310 in 2021 and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff. The city is the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the southeast of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth.
Saint David's Day, or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David's death in 589 AD.
Peter Finch is a Welsh author, psychogeographer and poet living in Cardiff, Wales.
Llanrumney is a suburb, community and electoral ward in east Cardiff, Wales.
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St David's Hall is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales.
St David's, previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David's 2 in 2009, St David's is the third busiest shopping centre in the United Kingdom.
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The Hayes is a commercial area in the southern city centre of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. Centred on the road of that name leading south towards the east end of the city centre, the area is mostly pedestrianised and is the location of the Hayes Island Snack Bar.
Cardiff has many cultural sites varying from the historical Cardiff Castle and out of town Castell Coch to the more modern Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Bay. Cardiff was a finalist in the European Capital of Culture 2008.
Architecture in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, dates from Norman times to the present day. Its urban fabric is largely Victorian and later, reflecting Cardiff's rise to prosperity as a major coal port in the 19th century. No single building style is associated with Cardiff, but the city centre retains several 19th and early 20th century shopping arcades.
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The Cardiff Comedy Festival is organised by Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Wakeham, Richard Balshaw, Johnny Disco and Matt Price. As well as showcasing established, mainly Welsh, acts, the Festival also aims to nurture new talent, and in 2010 premiered the first Welsh Unsigned Standup Awards.
The Welsh Artist of the Year award was an annual art competition in Cardiff's St David's Hall, open to amateur and professional artists with a link to Wales. It ran annually from 2000.
The 1987 Cardiff City Council election was held on Thursday 7 May 1987 to the district council known as Cardiff City Council, in Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales. It took place on the same day as other district council elections in Wales and England. The Conservative Party lost control of the council, though the Labour Party were unable to regain an overall majority.