Visit Y Bwa O Gymru Here:

The Arch of Wales    ~Y Bwa O Gymru~    Chirk Landmark
Artist: Duncan Moon
Albany, Western Australia

This landmark is a contemporary triumphal arch for Wales, answering the need for a gateway to define the border by exalting the self realisation of a nation asserting itself in the world with a proud sense of Welshness. What initially appears to promote literal and emblematic form and imagery contains a deeper, subliminal encoding of both region and nation that is empathetic to the ideas of gwlad and hireath. Stone, an appropriate medium with which to execute the work, is the currency of the Welsh built environment, from polite to vernacular architecture and fittingly, boundary walls. The site, being lower than road level, permits the viewer to acknowledge on approach that the dais from which the landmark arises is the shape of Wales inscribed in a circle: Wales in the world, the global arena where the country engages. The circle is in fact a squared circle and the four corners extrude through the circumference and align to the four cardinal points of the compass. We see the generative qualities of the number pi imbue Wales with qualities of regeneration and provide a clear sense of direction for the advancement of the nation.

The dais is raised above the existing ground level to augment direction with ascendancy and heralds the first comment in a strong narrative of textural references for the region. The mound represents Bronze Age forts, the Welsh border as articulated by Offa’s Dyke and the motte and bailey castle of Chirk.

The overture of the composition arising from this base are three pillars bearing three arches that conceal a beautiful symmetry beneath an overt asymmetry. The proportions of the construct are governed by the musical consonants of the octave, fourth and fifth harmonic - the rudiments of our understanding of music. Such proportions give agency to the musicality and song of Wales in general and the locality in particular. The prominence of Llangollen as the home of the International Eisteddfod, the hugely successful male voice choir at Froncysyllte and operatic superstar Bryn Terfel top a long list of references.

The right hand pillar, the telamon or load bearing male figure, is a composite character of Owain Glyndwr and a bard. The rebel from Corwen was also a London trained lawyer and here we see a conciliatory soldier statesman, his sword safely in it’s scabbard, not drawn and pointed toward England. He embodies any rebellious sentiment that ever beat in a Welsh heart and is symbolic of the independence achieved through the Welsh Assembly, whilst the book held over his head demonstrates he is a learned man and more likely to engage in polemics than battle.
The bard, by holding books above his head, displays deference for literature as consummative transcendence of the human mind that spawned it. The harp is held over the heart declaring a love for music, hence the faculties of intellect and emotion are inextricably linked to music and literature. Behind the bard is an oak tree whose association with Celtic folklore hails back to Druidic tradition. The figure’s right leg and cloak integrate with the form of the tree indicating the strength of the bond with the land - the living landscape contextualised through a compound of gwlad and hireath.

The central pillar is a simple, elegant, stylised bundle column of four leeks, a national plant emblem that lends its symmetry perfectly to a central position. The plant that sustained Welsh soldiers in medieval France now sustains the main load of the structure. This is a new, parochial adaptation of using plant motifs in architecture (corinthian capitals and papyrus columns). Judicious selection of different coloured granites and pigmentation can enhance this effect.

The left hand column starts as a plinth of black granite carved into a pile of coal that rises as if it were being drilled and extracted by the twisted column above; the staple diet of industry for over two centuries was a product and export of Chirk , Wrexham and elsewhere in Wales.

This plinth balances that of the right hand column and is complimented by the stones beneath the parapet. The wheel on top of the tower represents industry in general, including agriculture and by imagining the wheel turning we can visualise coal being hauled from mines and masonry being hoisted up high.
The crenulated tower responds to the mound and is an illustration of the proliferation of fortresses around Wales, starting with Chirk and Llangollen, an inevitable comment made with a twist.
The stem of the column, although not shown in the drawings, is to be covered in carved lettering.
The words in some instances are gilded, making a double reference; in one sense to the mining of gold and in another to the elevation of language as a paragon of Welsh culture. Inscriptions of Welsh songlines, poetry and proverbs with an emphasis on the role of women in Welsh society from mythology to modern communities crisscross the column.
Fuelled from below and protected from above, immune from siege, the language enriches, embellishes and empowers.

The capitals of each column proclaim to themselves and converse with each other through the relationship of pi, an affirmation by repetition of the regenerative paradigm enshrined in the base.
The arches strike up an immediate and intimate dialogue with Telford’s aqueduct and Robertson’s viaduct nearby, the conduits that opened up nineteenth century Wales. They are also a precursor of the ruins of Dinas Bran castle, whose silhouetted profile is pierced by an arch and the remains of Valle Crucis abbey, defined by it’s gable arch.
There is a suggestion of livestock in the manner that the arches assume a hornlike appearance and using white granite represents the production and trading of wool across the centuries. The versatile wheel on the turret not only extracts coal but also transports and spins wool .
The arches also supersede, nay supersize, the intrusive signage of a nearby fast food outlet. The ’golden arches’ are a triumphal arch of mass marketing and a tawdry logo of multinational mediocrity to which in reply I flippantly paraphrase Crocodile Dundee and declare “those aren’t arches… THESE are arches!”.

Above the leek pillar, in the intersection of the two arches, central to the whole work, is an aeolian harp made of steel and clad in gilded brass/bronze with openings fashioned into Celtic spiral triskedels, investing music with eternity just as the use of gold awards nobility. The wind harp is tuned to the same harmonics of octave, fourth and fifth as the whole composition, so we see and hear the same proportion and hear the bard’s harp. Two senses are engaged simultaneously, heightening the experience of the artwork.

Nestled over the top of the wind harp in the bosom of the arches is a miniature mountain range. High up as mountains are we are reminded of the deep heartland and highlands of Wales, which the A5 will surely lead us through.

Finally, encompassing all is the Red Dragon. The dragon occupies the full measure of the octave, the structure is not simply beneath him but under his aegis. His head rests near the castle and the tail, wrapped around the books, protects the culture of Wales.
As no one has actually seen a dragon it remains quite an abstract concept and this dragon is a modern, scientifically plausible creature displaying crocodilian and monitor lizard characteristics.
The dragon states:
‘This is Wales, an ancient culture, people and country in the modern age.’