CLOUDCATCHER - WAL, Landmark Wales

J. MAYER H. Competition Team: Juergen Mayer H., Stephen Molloy, Alex Arnold

International Competition 2007
Client : Landmark Wales Trust
Site: Dowlais Top, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK

Like the a dreamcatcher over a child’s bed, the Cloudcatcher nestles over the valley, caught in its web are the faded memories of centuries past, the idle daydreams of the present and a vantage point to construct fancies for the future. Its open form creates a strong silhouette by day and a glowing attraction at night, it invites exploration and interaction, one can climb up into the web and look down at the landscape below, where etched glass panels inform about the fascinating industrial past of Dowglais and Caeharris, allowing visitors and those too young to remember to see the valley through the eyes of a different past. The Cloudcatcher finds its form somehwere between a mythical creature, an ancient ruin, skeletal industrial extraction machinery and the line of the far horizon. The sculpture reconciles the memory of faded industrial heritage with the timeless grace of the rolling hillsides, through this hybridisation a new surprising form emerges promising things to come, and hinting at the myths of a long forgotten past.