Intricate designs carved by Stone Age man over 4,000 years ago have inspired new works of art by a lighting designer from Bangor/St Asaph.
The complex pattern of spirals and zig-zags were etched into a pillar of stone carefully placed in a Neolithic burial site on the coast of Anglesey so that on the shortest day of the year, December 21, the low winter sun would illuminate it.
The site is on a headland at Cable Bay, Llanfaelog, on Anglesey and just ten miles away at Gaerwen their modern counterparts will be part of an Arts and Business Cymru exhibition at the company showrooms of Peninsula Homes.
They will be used in lighting installations crafted by Bangor-based lighting designer Hannah Wardle and inspired by the incredible artistry of those Stone Age people.
Hannah, originally from St Asaph, was commissioned to carry out the work by Ken and Lorraine Grayson, of Peninsula Homes, enthusiastic advocates for the Arts and Business programme, as part of the firm’s 30th birthday celebrations.
Hannah, 36, who now lives in Bethesda and has her studio in Treborth, Bangor, trained at Goldsmiths College in London and has worked for several years in London before moving back to North Wales a few months ago.
She said: “My parents were keen archaeologists and so I knew about Barclodiad y Gawres and the fantastic designs there and I wanted to use them because of their link to light and lighting.
“There was a lot of activity here in Neolithic times, Anglesey was very much a hub for Stone Age man, like Euston.
“The site there wasn’t just a burial place, because at the Winter Solstice the light floods down the tunnel at the entrance and hits the carved stone and lights it up.
“The installations are going to be in these very nice, German-made Solarlux glass houses which are called Lightcatchers so that’s very appropriate.
“I think these ancient people were very clever as well as very artistic and they used this place as a kind of a clock so they knew that after the stone was lit up the days would get longer.”
The passage grave site at Cable Bay is similar to other Neolithic sites in Ireland and, as well as the carved stones, contained the cremated remains of two young men in a side chamber as well as of a fire on which had been poured a stew of fish, eel, frog, toad, grass-snake, mouse, shrew and hare, covered with limpet shells and pebbles.
Lorraine, who used to work for Arts and Business Cymru, was told about Hannah’s work after she exhibited at Ruthin Craft Centre and she thought her work would be a perfect fit.
She said: “I love the concept of finding art in an unusual place and if we can use Hannah’s amazing work to illustrate the way these conservatories let in light then that’s perfect.
“It’s important to us that we contribute to local charities and arts organisations and to the community in which we operate, and this forms the heart of our values and culture.
“It’s also wonderful that Hannah is locally-based and of course she has taken her inspiration from ancient art that was created here on Anglesey thousands of years ago – it gives it a timeless quality as well.”
Hannah has been experimenting with different materials for the finished installations, trying out copper, brass and quartz – her parents, David and Gwen Wardle, were jewellers who had a unit at Ruthin Craft Centre for many years and she still makes use of their jeweller’s tools for some of her work.
But much of it is much more hi tech, involving Photoshop and computer design programmes and laser-cutting techniques to create incredible patterns and designs that allow light to filter through.
She added: “Lorraine likes real materials and so I’ve been working with things that give a nice lighting effect.
“I think Arts and Business is a brilliant idea. I am the creative one and Lorraine is the business one and she has found programmes that enable me to work with A-level students.”
That has led to Peninsula Homes commissioning Hannah to carry out two workshops back in the Vale of Clwyd where she grew up, in Wigfair, near St Asaph.
The former Denbigh High School pupil will spend three days with A-level art students from Ysgol Glan Clwyd, St Asaph, as Hannah shows them how lighting designers operate and gives them the chance to make their own installations which will then go on display in the Education Room at Ruthin Craft Centre.
Then in February a second workshop will be held at Ruthin Craft Centre, called Raising the Bar it will be for highly-gifted art students from secondary schools across Denbighshire.
