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Untitled is a 1972 sculpture by
Untitled is a 1972 sculpture by Garth Evans
Garth Evans (born 1934) is a British sculptor and former college lecturer at St Martin's School of Art, London.
Background
Evans' mother was from Pencoed, her father and brothers were South Wales coalminers. He was born in Cheshire in 1934 and s ...
.
It was created as part of the Peter Stuyvesant City Sculpture project. 16 new sculptures were created for the project and placed in eight cities in the United Kingdom. The piece was placed on The Hayes
The Hayes ( cy, Yr Ais) 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 ...
in central Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
for six months. In 2019 the sculpture was restored and placed in its original position on The Hayes for six months from September 2019 to March 2020.
The sculpture was located in Leicestershire after its original display, and remained unseen by the public. In collaboration with Art Happens with Art Fund, a crowd funding campaign saw the piece restored and placed back on display on The Hayes.
Evans created the piece as a response to his childhood in Pencoed
Pencoed ( cy, Pen-coed) is a urbanised community and town in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales. It straddles the M4 motorway north east of Bridgend and is situated on the Ewenny River. At the 2011 census it had a population of around 9,166.
...
, a mining village near Bridgend
Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge ...
. His grandfather and maternal uncles were coal miners. Evans said that "As a child, I spent summers in South Wales and I vividly remember listening to my uncles and other men talk of their lives underground, in the dark. I wanted to make something that I felt had a connection to the coal mining and steel making industries of South Wales". Evans recorded the responses of the public to the original siting of the sculpture in 1972; these responses inspired a play, ''The Cardiff Tapes'', which was subsequently performed in New York City.
The piece has been likened to a "hammer-like tool" and its black form resembling the tunnel of a mine.
References
{{Reflist 1972 sculptures Public art in Wales History of Cardiff