View allAll Photos Tagged artistic_feature
I think this one is up there with my favourites from our recent trip to Bempton
I love the bokeh created from the sea below, glistening as the sunlight hits, like magical fairy lights
The gannets were constantly busy finding nesting material, both on the grassy cliff sides and surrounding fields and would often gather huge mouthfuls to carry back to their nests
As an artistic feature I've added a white vignette, which I think adds to the image
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2024.12.18: an oddly artistic feature in a standard parking lot at the Marché 440. Better than just a bland concrete wall I guess.
Welcome to another installment of "Collecting with Bill"; we're glad to have you here with us today.
In the world of stamp collecting, there are many different items that are stamp-related. Today we have an "FDC" - First Day Cover. FDC's come in many different fashions and cover a wide range of topics. FDC's typically feature a cancelled stamp on an envelope. The envelopes often have a "cachet", which is an image or artistic feature pertaining to the issued stamp. The stamp is cancelled on the day it was made available to the public. The FDC highlights the newly issued stamp and provides a marker in history of when the stamp was first issued. Plus, they're another fun thing to collect!
This FDC displays a stamp issued in Bolivia on 31 Jan 1991; the cachet on this envelope depicts a Spectacled Bear - a/k/a Andean Bear - and its cub.
It's especially meaningful to me on a personal level. I am blessed with a truly amazing son - he's 16 now - and the cachet reminds me very much of one particular night I had with him. He was around 2 or 3 I suppose; me and my wife would take turns reading a book to (and with) him when it was time for him to go to sleep. (Disclaimer: She did it much more than I did. It took me quite a long time for me to adjust to the role of having a son. Bless her heart.) Anyway, I was reading a book to him that I previously considered way too "touchy feely" for me to indulge in....straight-up male ego. I had a great time that night and he enjoyed the experience quite a bit. He was familiar with the book, so he knew all the features, twists and turns. Surely enough, off to sleep he went when we finished the book.
This is but one example of the multitude of things that I find appealing about stamp collecting. And, to an extent, an example of something I enjoy about Flickr. In general terms, I'm less than thrilled about social media. The only other platform I am a part of is stamp-related; I don't expect that to change much if at all. There was a time when I HAD TO rack up 100 faves and 25 comments...I'm just in a different part of the same room I guess.
Gustaf Vasa Church, located in the Vasastaden district of Stockholm, Sweden, is named after 16th century King Gustav Vasa. it was designed by architect Agi Lindegren (1858-1927) in the Baroque Revival style in 1906. It can seat about 1,100 people and is therefore one of the largest churches in Stockholm. Its dome rises some 60 meters above ground. It underwent restoration work in 1965-66.
The altarpiece, the major artistic feature of this church, was created in 1728 by German-born Burchard Precht (1651-1738) the wood-carver and sculptor credited with introducing the gilded baroque style to Sweden. The altarpiece was designed for the Uppsala Cathedral and was moved to the Gustaf Vasa Church in 1906 fitting in perfectly with its new setting.
Capture of the north entrance to Pioneer Courthouse Square. Seen here, an artistic feature consisting of towering classical columns which progressively topple over like those of an ancient ruin. There are outdoor chess tables on some of the toppled columns; chess players frequently congregate there during the day.
Fifty years after the building of the Neonian Baptistry, another baptistry was constructed in Ravenna in around 500-510 AD, barely 700 metres away, of similar size and shape, and with a virtual replica of the Neonian's dome mosaic of Jesus' baptism as its crowning artistic feature, albeit one that is clearly more abstract and 'Byzantine' in style. The Ostrogoths, who ruled Italy by this time, built this second baptistry to serve the Arian version of Christianity that they adhered to.
Modern scholarship recognises that the Ostrogoths' capacity to construct buildings such as this baptistry, and their retention of Roman political structures including the Senate, shows that the end of antiquity in Italy did not occur at the traditional date of 476 (the deposition of the last western emperor), but instead after the ruinous Byzantine-Gothic war in the middle of the following century.
The great blue heron, or "blue crane" as it is often called, is the largest, the most widely distributed and the best known of the American herons. Herons probably originated in the warmer climates, where they are certainly better represented in species and in numbers; but this species extends its range across the continent and well up into the cooler climate of Canada. It is a stately bird, dignified in its bearing, graceful in its movements and an artistic feature in the landscape.
In its native solitudes, far from the haunts of man, it may be seen standing motionless, in lonely dignity, on some far distant point that breaks the shore line of a wilderness lake, its artistic outline giving the only touch of life to the broad expanse of water and its background of somber forest. Or on some wide, flat coastal marsh its stately figure looms up in the distance, as with graceful, stealthy tread it wades along in search of its prey. Perhaps you have seen it from afar and think you can gain a closer intimacy, but its eyes and ears are keener than yours; and it is a wise and a wary bird. But even as it takes its departure, you will still stand and admire the slow and dignified strokes of its great, black-tipped wings, until this interesting feature of the landscape fades away into the distance. A bird so grand, so majestic, and so picturesque is surely a fitting subject for the artist's brush and camera.
I rarely take self portrait because I do think I am the most uninteresting subject in the world.
I may have been tagged by my Flickr contact before and so I made it up this time with this self portrait.
The 10 things I love:
I love classical music (from Vivaldi to Philip Glass).
I love movie soundtracks (most of them from the movies I like e.g. those of Krzsztof Kieslowski, Wim Wenders, Theo Angelopoulos).
I love movies (especially kids movies e.g. Toy Story 1, 2, 3!)
I love playing Sudoku (I do 3 evil ones everyday).
I love cats (the best loved is Puss Tabby).
I love books (paper books but not e-books!) and reading (when I move to my new home 13 years ago, the moving people asked me if I was teaching in school because I have 100 boxes of books!).
I love "the love of wisdom" i.e. philosophy.
I love meditation (by shooting macro or watching the clouds drifting in the sky).
I love travelling (to the places where I would not understand their languages e.g. India, Nepal, Tibet ...)
I love being loved by my dear.
Happy weekend to everyone!
This is the shot of Hypanthium in Roseline Sturdy Theatre at UBC Botanical Garden.
Some background info about it.
Another key artistic feature is a stainless steel globe-shaped water feature designed by William Pye, of England.
Called Hypanthium, after the name for the cup-shaped part of a flower that produces and supports sepals, petals and stamens, the shiny sculpture is intended to evoke an attitude of calm and quiet reflection as well as being a stylish botanical symbol
Nativity Angels
Late 18th or early 19th Century
FILIPINO
Pair of angels with ivory head, hands and feet. Gold gilding on hair (a very typical Philippine artistic feature) still extant. Traces of polychromy.
A very rare pair of ivory Angels. Ivory heads, hands and feet mounted on wooden, mannequin bodies. Possibly used in a Nativity setting. The wooden bodies are arched in a manner to suggest that they may have been suspended at one time.
The hair on both angels are carved in tight curls and gilded, a very typical Philippine artistic treatment. The eyes are heavy lidded and noses flattish and slightly flared. Traces of polychromy around the face particularly around the eyes (a reddish-brown color seems to outline the eyes). The hands are exquisitely carved and most expressive. The feet are shown shod in sandals.
Condition is very good for its age. The gold-embroidered fabric is still in very good condition. Some small losses and chips are present but not significant.
Height: 21.5 cm. or 8.6 in.
WEEK 3 – Cordova Super Target Closing, Set I
While all my previous uploads from this store are from visits in 2015, 2017, and 2018, today I’m finally taking us into the modern age, with photos taken on January 10th, 2019. Following the previous pic which artistically featured the Super Target logo as viewed through a cart corral, here we’re looking at the left-side entry gable.
SuperTarget (now closed) // 475 N Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN 38018
(c) 2020 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
Holy Family / Sagrada Familia
18th Century
FILIPINO
Solid ivory with traces of gilding and polychromy. Mounted on a wooden stand lacquered in the chinoisrie style.
A solid ivory group of the Holy Family [Sagrada Familia] consisting of an image of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and the infant Christ child. The tableau depicts the Holy Family’s journey into Egypt and both St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin are dressed in traveling costumes complete with hats.
The carving of the images are quite exceptional exhibiting many of the features which characterize Philippine ivory sculptures of t he 18th century. The face of the Virgin is round and moon-shaped considered a feminine attribute of beauty. The face of St. Joseph, on the other hand is more sculpted with high cheekbones. Both the Virgin and St. Joseph exhibit the heavy-lidded eyes recalling the epicanthic fold of oriental eyes.
The hair on all three figures are beautifully rendered in individual strands of the archaic manner. The Virgin’s locks fall in tight, ropy curls at her back. St. Joseph’s hair is shorter but the Montanez forelock is very obvious on St. Joseph’s brow. All three figures have their hair gilded in the Philippine manner of the 18th century.
All three images are dressed in flowing robes that drapes vertically and bunch around the images’s feet allowing the toes to peep through. Both Joseph and the Christ child wear collars typical of those found on 18th century Philippine image. The Virgin’s tunic, however, is draped interestingly around her neck in several folds held together by golden thread stitched around the collar. All three images also display a belt cinched around their waists and tied in a stylized know at the front. This, again, is a very typical artistic feature found on many Philippine images made in the 18th century.
All three images are gilded in a all-around pattern of small flowers and leaves. In many areas, the red bole can be seen where the gilding have rubbed-off over time.
Provenance:
Descended in the Sarmiento family, Counts of Salvatierra, Marquises of Sobroso and Caballeros of Alcantara.
Most likely brought to Spain from the New World by Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Viceroy of New Spain (November 23, 1642 to May 13, 1648) and later Viceroy of Peru (1648 to 1655).
Notable member of the Sarmiento family include
*Viceroy Garacia Sarmiento de Sotomayor (c. 1595, Spain—June 26, 1659, Lima);
** Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar and first ambassador of Spain in London twice.
*** Doña Mariana Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor , portrayed in Velazquez " Las Maniñas” delivering the clay jar to the Infanta Margarita.
A tattoo is a permanent artistic feature that often signifies belonging and membership. However, light is ephemeral and in this picture, the light from our sun has left a mark on the skin for a short time. Within the exposure of the frame, the light indicates meaning and therefore implies belonging on this planet: a transitory and permanent connection to the light captured when the shutter was open.
Haghartsin (Armenian: Հաղարծին) is a 13th-century monastery located near the town of Dilijan in the Tavush Province of Armenia. It was built between the 10th and 14th centuries (in the 12th under Khachatur of Taron); much of it under the patronage of the Bagratuni Dynasty.
Traditionally, an eagle was soaring over the dome of the main building at its dedication and thus it became commonly known as the monastery of the playing (or soaring) eagle("Hagh" means a game while "Artsin" a form of "Artsiv" means eagle in Armenian).
St. Astvatsatsin Church in Haghardzin (1281) is the largest building and the dominant artistic feature. The sixteen-faced dome is decorated with arches, the bases of whose columns are connected by triangular ledges and spheres, with a band around the drum’s bottom. This adds to the optical height of the dome and creates the impression that its drum is weightless. The platband of the southern portal's architrave is framed with rows of trefoils.
The sculptural group of the church’s eastern facade differs in composition from the similar bas-reliefs of Sanahin, Haghpat, and Harich. It shows two men in monks’ attire who point with their hands at a church model and a picture of a dove with half-spread wings placed between them. The umbrella roofing of the model’s dome shows the original look of the dome of Astvatsatsin church. The figures are shown wearing different dresses — the one standing right is dressed more richly than the one standing left. The faces, with their long whiskers, luxuriant combed beards and large almond shaped eyes, are also executed in different manners. These are probably the founders of the church, the Father Superior and his assistant.
(Wikipedia)
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Having explored monasteries of Lori province, we headed to the east to visit famous Sevan lake and sights located around its shores. This Haghartsin monastery is lovely located, however its ongoing reconstruction is to some extent impacting its ancient beauty...
✰ This photo was featured on The Epic Global Showcase here: bit.ly/1T3bRty
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#mandalas #yoga #art #sacredgeometry #beautiful_mandalas #heymandalas #artcomplex #blvart #artmaster #geometricart #mandala_sharing #best_mandalas #art_conquest #opusarte #artistic_feature #supportart #visionaryart #healingart #meditation #imaginationarts #tcart #illustratenow #supportart #mandalalover
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Holy Family / Sagrada Familia
18th Century
FILIPINO
Solid ivory with traces of gilding and polychromy. Mounted on a wooden stand lacquered in the chinoisrie style.
A solid ivory group of the Holy Family [Sagrada Familia] consisting of an image of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and the infant Christ child. The tableau depicts the Holy Family’s journey into Egypt and both St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin are dressed in traveling costumes complete with hats.
The carving of the images are quite exceptional exhibiting many of the features which characterize Philippine ivory sculptures of t he 18th century. The faces of the Virgin is round and moon-shaped considered a feminine attribute of beauty. The face of St. Joseph, on the other hand is more sculpted with high cheekbones. Both the Virgin and St. Joseph exhibit the heavy-lidded eyes recalling the epicanthic fold of oriental eyes.
The hair on all three figures are beautifully rendered in individual strands of the archaic manner. The Virgin’s locks fall in tight, ropy curls at her back. St. Joseph’s hair is shorter but the Montanez forelock is very obvious on St. Joseph’s brow. All three figures have their hair gilded in the Philippine manner of the 18th century.
All three images are dressed in flowing robes that drapes vertically and bunch around the images’s feet allowing the toes to peep through. Both Joseph and the Christ child wear collars typical of those found on 18th century Philippine image. The Virgin’s tunic, however, is draped interestingly around her neck in several folds held together by golden thread stitched around the collar. All three images also display a belt cinched around their waists and tied in a stylized know at the front. This, again, is a very typical artistic feature found on many Philippine images made in the 18th century.
All three images are gilded in a all-around pattern of small flowers and leaves. In many areas, the red bole can be seen where the gilding have rubbed-off over time.
Provenance:
Descended in the Sarmiento family, Counts of Salvatierra, Marquises of Sobroso and Caballeros of Alcantara.
Most likely brought to Spain from the New World by Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Viceroy of New Spain (November 23, 1642 to May 13, 1648) and later Viceroy of Peru (1648 to 1655).
Notable member of the Sarmiento family include
*Viceroy Garacia Sarmiento de Sotomayor (c. 1595, Spain—June 26, 1659, Lima);
** Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar and first ambassador of Spain in London twice.
*** Doña Mariana Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor , portrayed in Velazquez " Las Maniñas” delivering the clay jar to the Infanta Margarita.
El caso Tindaya. Algunas notas. febrero 2013 :: Tindaya case. Some notes. february 2013
The Tindaya Mountain is one of the areas with higher levels of legal protection of the archipelago, because of its natural and cultural values. Is Natural Monument (F-6) by Law 12/94 of Natural Places of Canary Islands. Is a ien de Interés Cultural (Cultural Value Estate) according to art. 62.2. (A) of Law 4/99 of March 15, about Heritage of the Canary Islands, to be one of the most important rock carvings sites of the ancient cultures of the archipelago. It is an environmentally sensitive area by Law 11/90 of 13 July, Ecological Impact Prevention. In this mountain lives the cuernúa (Caralluma burchardii), a plant protected by regional standards (and extinction endangered), and the surrounding plains are Special Protection Area for Birds.
But Tindaya Mountain, unfortunately, has become nationally famous for reasons totally unrelated to their natural and heritage values, other interests and other situations have become the magic mountain a symbol of discord, of economic corruption and also about "art". The proposal by the Basque artist Eduardo Chillida to pierce the mountain to make a hollow cube inside of 50 feet square, and two large holes that let you see the sun and the moon from within, is the reason that the controversy has blown. Leaving aside the problems of political and economic corruption that have accompanied this project from the beginning, the debate continues (but about 25.000.000€ have been spent, "no stone turned") in what must prevail, if respect for the integrity of the mountain or on the contrary the idea conceived in a sleepless night of brilliant artist. Many people believe that the work of Chillida will bring Fuerteventura to a place of honor in the world of art and that this justifies the monumental project Tindaya Mountain. By contrast, a large part of Canarian society believes that the value of its assets is what makes this mountain a natural monument worthy of preservation for future generations.
"Eduardo Chillida creation of a great sculpture piece in Fuerteventura is an excellent thing, I think, but I find it hard to accept that this means sacrificing a unique archaeological site, also ignoring all legal protection in this regard". Professor of archeology of University of La Laguna Antonio Tejera Gaspar wrote these words in 1996 , but supporters of the project have avoided the artistic merits of the debate and assume that a work of art of Spain's most famous sculptor justified, without further explanation or debates, the emptying of the mountain. Opponents are disqualified for failing to appreciate the significance of the artwork. Nor have they responded to other arguments, according to its supporters, the great artists can not be limited by laws or "environmentalists" considerations. Chillida wants to be the genius of the mountain, the man who will become artistic heritage what until now was a mountain "only" noted for its natural, ethnographic and archaeological values.
Eduardo Chillida died in 2002, after a years he suffered Alzheimer. Now his family continues to drive the project, on shutdown (for economic reasons) of the house-museum of Chillida (Chillida-Leku) in 2010
Many specialists in law, urban planning, archeology, geography, geology and even the art world, consider that the Chillida project not support security levels and true values of the Mountain, which could be seriously affected or misleading. Proof of this is that the promoters of the project, (Canary Islands Government and Fuerteventura Cabildo) have failed to protect these values and document, in which no one has invested euro, nor scientific studies have helped to deepen the knowledge and dissemination of the heritage values of the Mountain. On the contrary, they are very obvious neglect and looting of archaeological remains, the refusal to define the BIC, the helplessness of some species such as Caralluma itself, as acknowledged by the monumental project. In recent years only Chillida sculpture project has been promoted, with an outrageous expense or loss of 25 million euros (The Government supports a cost of 25.7 million in Tindaya).
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In July 2011, members of the scientific community, presented the media a manifesto, signed by artists, historians, archaeologists, geographers, biologists, engineers, historians, anthropologists, museum and libraries directors and, etc. 173 signatures in total.
Among other considerations, they said:
Because we believe that the current draft does not have to do with the original idea of Chillida, as the sculptor himself devised a project clean and environmentally aware, and free of corruption or suspicion of illegal business, something that, unfortunately, the reality reality has contradicted.
Because society is still been fooled with Monumental project viability, while still wasting public money at a time of deep economic crisis for the whole Canarian society. The reality is that this viability is questioned by serious difficulties: legal, administrative, economic and technical, some unresolved and other unresolvable. Among others, include:
a. The feasibility study itself acknowledges that there are still literally geotechnical uncertainties inherent in the complexity of any proposed underground works. Many of these uncertainties can not be satisfactorily resolved until the excavation of a pilot gallery (Phase IV), or even the construction of the sculpture.
b. The first impact study, explicitly says that without global action to restore the environment of the mountain, Chillida's work itself would be environmentally unsustainable. Remember that this overall project has been eliminated in the second project.
c. From the economic standpoint, the project points out the need of the introduction of a variable component on the budget end of completion of the sculpture, due to its artistic feature and to the uncertainty associated with any underground works, so the possible agreement with a dealer-manager will allow future assumption of a budget increase for these artistic motifs. To this uncertainty, expressed by the project itself we must unite the derivative of the acute crisis. It's hard to think that someone will invest 76 million euros in exchange for monument management commitment to amortize the cost and obtain benefits in about 15 years. Shortly after the agreement with the Chillida family, politician Domingo Berriel, talks about alternative potential funding formulas in case of economic infeasibility and speaks of a financial economic study that nobody knows. The situation of these cultural megaprojects is so delicate, that the family of the sculptor has just closed the iconic Museum Chillida-Leku because of economic bankruptcy. Still, the Canary government granted them 50% of the representation of the future Foundation that will manage the works.
d. There are many legal uncertainties still unresolved and awaiting sentence, as the one that appeal against the first initiating administrative actions of Tindaya record, in one of which was involved himself Domingo Berriel, current Councillor of the Environment of the Government and promoter of Chillida's work. Other legal uncertainties, are the FCC (construction and projects company) appeal against certain acts of government and, more recently, the appeal against conservation standards, being perversely contrary to the basis of protecting the Mountain.
e. Finally, remember that monumental project and environmental impact assessment approved by the COTMAC (Planning Commission of Territory and Environment of Canary Islands) provides over 25 conditions, many complex technical studies, which will be carried out before the start of work and in some cases, may condition the project itself. Government should inform if the money to pay these technical studies, some very expensive, will also be borne by the private sector that will finance the execution of the work. Faced with the decision of the Canary Islands to create a foundation to exploit the Tindaya Mountain monument, a project that has already caused serious economic damage to the islands' society, which has become one of the biggest political scandals of the islands and has received a major social rejection, we urge the Government of the Canary Islands, the regional Parliament, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura and political forces to withdraw it and work on a new project of restoring and enhancing the true values of that emblem of our natural and cultural heritage, to generate once and for all cultural and economic benefits to the inhabitants of the island and no false promises. We call on citizens to mobilize, to spread information about the project and to encourage public debate on the future of Tindaya.
YouTube (14:54): Press conference of members of the scientific community by presenting a manifesto against the destruction of Tindaya. July 1st, 2011
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Tindaya mountain of Chillida. Jesus Giráldez Macía. January 30, 2012
Hidden behind this project is the biggest corruption case in the democratic era of the archipelago and that although the calculations are complex, are estimated at over 30 million Euros spent on a project that has not moved a stone. Chillida hole is artistic nonsense and an attack on culture and nature and furthermore is impossible. And they know it. Any specialist in geology or anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that it is impossible to make a cube of fifty yards side inside a mountain whose roof (flat, of course) will hold hundreds of tons of stone brittle and fractured. The geotechnical study commissioned by the Canary Islands Government to confirm -not to investigate- its feasibility was rigged. Was awarded without tender to the Estudios Guadiana, led by Lorenzo Fernández Ordóñez, a close friend of the Chillida family and son of the engineer that working with the sculptor for years. Yet the study's own findings showed many geotechnical uncertainties that can not be settled until they start drilling the Mountain. Certainly Estudios Guadiana claimed a million and a half euros for making a report with these surreal and inconsistent conclusions. Unknown, however, the money gained by professor of ecology and honorary president of ADENA, Francisco Diaz Pineda, to sign the environmental impact statement which holds that pierce the mountain is environmentally friendly but, thanks to this scientific heresy in the service of power, was appointed as the coordinator of the teams that has been working on the future Fuerteventura Natural Park, where mysteriously Tindaya is off limits.
But back to the Chillida. This family goes shooting from the rooftops that its decision to allow -as heirs of their father's work- emptying the Mountain is not driven by economic interests. Two years ago we went to Euskalherría to present our book "Tindaya, el poder contra el mito" (Tindaya: myth against power)in several cities. Naive, at presentations we explained that one of the reasons for our presence in the Basque Country and Navarre was to raise awareness for the family of the sculptor and get them to definitely disengage from the project. In the discussions that arose in that tour were repeated public interventions always in the same direction: there will be money and business, there will be the Chillida. Now that their museum has closed, Tindaya reappears as safety net. If not, explain how to continue to support an unfeasible project, with strong opposition from the public and scientific community, with the artist died and corruption splashing everything it touches? It is likely that faith moves no mountains but money does allow to hollow them.
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Where is it?
Map of Tindaya Mountain with photos
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A book: Tindaya, el poder contra el mito. Jesús Giráldez Macía
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El caso Tindaya. Algunas notas. febrero 2013 :: Tindaya case. Some notes. february 2013
La Montaña de Tindaya es uno de los espacios con mayores niveles de protección legal del Archipiélago, por sus valores naturales y culturales. Es Monumento Natural (F- 6) por la Ley 12/94 de 19 de diciembre, de Espacios Naturales de Canarias. Es Bien de Interés Cultural según el art. 62.2. (a) de la Ley 4/99 de 15 de marzo, del Patrimonio Histórico de Canarias, al existir una de las estaciones de grabados rupestres más importantes de las antiguas culturas del Archipiélago. Es Área de Sensibilidad Ecológica por la Ley 11/90 de 13 de julio, de Prevención de Impacto Ecológico. En dicha montaña se encuentra la cuernúa (Caralluma burchardii), una planta protegida por normativa regional (y en amenaza de extinción), y los llanos que la rodean son Zona de Especial Protección para las Aves.
Proyecto de la familia Chillida
Pero Tindaya, desgraciadamente, se ha hecho famosa a nivel nacional por motivos totalmente ajeno a sus valores naturales y patrimoniales; otros intereses y otras situaciones han convertido la montaña mágica en un símbolo de la discordia, de la corrupción económica y, también, del “arte”. La propuesta del artista vasco Eduardo Chillida de horadar la montaña para hacer un cubo en su interior de 50 metros de lado, y dos grandes orificios que permitan ver al sol y la luna desde su interior, ha sido el motivo que ha hecho saltar la polémica. Dejando al margen los problemas de corrupción política y económica que han acompañado desde sus inicios a este proyecto, el debate sigue estando (aunque se hayan gastado unos 25.000.000€ "sin mover una piedra") en qué debe prevalecer, si el respeto a la integridad de la montaña o por el contrario la idea concebida en una noche de insomnio del genial artista. Son muchos los que consideran que la obra de Chillida aportará a Fuerteventura un lugar de honor en el mundo del arte y que ello justifica la realización del proyecto monumental de Montaña Tindaya. Por el contrario, un amplio sector de la sociedad canaria opina que el valor de su patrimonio es lo que convierte a esta montaña en un auténtico monumento natural digno de ser conservado para las generaciones futuras.
“Que Eduardo Chillida realice una gran obra escultórica en Fuerteventura me parece una cosa excelente, pero me resulta difícil aceptar que para ello haya que sacrificar un conjunto arqueológico singular, obviando además toda la protección jurídica al respecto”. Escribía estas palabras en 1996 el catedrático de la universidad de La Laguna Antonio Tejera Gaspar, pero los partidarios del proyecto artístico han rehuido el fondo del debate y dan por supuesto que una obra de arte del escultor más famoso de España justifica, sin más explicaciones o debates, el vaciado de la montaña. A los opositores se les descalifica por su incapacidad para apreciar la trascendencia de la obra artística. Tampoco han respondido a otros argumentos pues, según sus partidarios, a los grandes artistas no se les puede limitar con normas legales o consideraciones “ecologistas”. Chillida quiere ser el genio de la montaña, el hombre que transforma en patrimonio artístico lo que hasta ahora era una montaña que “sólo” destacaba por sus valores naturalísticos, etnográficos y arqueológicos.
Eduardo Chillida murió en 2002, tras unos últimos años en que sufrió Alzheimer. Ahora su familia continúa impulsando el proyecto, tras el cierre (por motivos económicos) de la casa-museo de Chillida (Chillida-Leku) en 2010.
Numerosos especialistas en derecho, urbanismo, arqueología, geografía, geología e, incluso, del mundo del arte, consideran que el proyecto de Chillida no es compatible con los niveles de protección que posee la Montaña y con sus auténticos valores, los cuales podrían quedar seriamente afectados o desvirtuados. Prueba de ello es que los promotores del proyecto (Gobierno de Canarias y Cabildo de Fuerteventura) ya han dejado de proteger y documentar dichos valores, en los cuales no se ha invertido un solo euro, ni se han favorecido los estudios científicos que profundicen en el conocimiento y la difusión de los valores patrimoniales de la montaña. Por el contrario, son muy evidentes el abandono y expolio de los restos arqueológicos, la negativa a delimitar el BIC, la indefensión de algunas especies como la propia Caralluma, como reconoce el propio proyecto monumental. En estos últimos años sólo se ha promocionado la obra escultórica de Chillida, con un escandaloso gasto o desaparición de 25 millones de euros (El Gobierno admite un gasto de 25,7 millones en Tindaya).
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En julio de 2011, miembros de la comunidad científica presentaron a los medios un Manifiesto, firmado por artistas, historiadores, arqueólogos, geógrafos, biólogos, ingenieros, historiadores, antropólogos, directores de museos y bibliotecas, etc. 173 firmas en total.
Entre otras consideraciones, decían:
Porque consideramos que el proyecto actual ya no tiene que ver con la idea original de Chillida, pues el propio escultor ideó un proyecto limpio y respetuoso con el medio, y libre de sospechas de corrupción o negocios ilícitos, algo que, desgraciadamente, la realidad se ha encargado de contradecir.
Porque se sigue engañando a la sociedad con la viabilidad del Proyecto Monumental, mientras se sigue derrochando dinero público en un momento de grave crisis para el conjunto de la sociedad canaria. La realidad es que su viabilidad está cuestionada por graves dificultades de tipo legal, administrativo, económico y técnico, muchas no resueltas y otras imposibles de superar. Entre otras, cabe destacar:
a. El propio estudio de viabilidad reconoce textualmente que aún existen ciertas incertidumbres geotécnicas propias de la complejidad de todo proyecto de obra subterránea. Muchas de estas incertidumbres no podrán ser resueltas de manera satisfactoria hasta que se realice una galería piloto (Fase IV), o incluso hasta la construcción de la escultura.
b. El primer estudio de Impacto, dice explícitamente, que sin una actuación global de recuperación del entorno de la montaña, la obra de Chillida en sí, sería ambientalmente insostenible. Hay que recordar que dicho proyecto global ha sido eliminado en el segundo proyecto.
c. Desde el punto de vista económico, el proyecto señala que se deberá valorar la introducción de una componente variable respecto al presupuesto final de realización de la escultura, debido al carácter artístico y a la incertidumbre asociada a toda obra subterránea, para que el posible acuerdo con un futuro concesionario-gestor permita asumir un aumento del presupuesto por estos motivos artísticos. A esa incertidumbre, expresada por el propio proyecto hay que unirle la derivada de la aguda crisis actual. Es difícil pensar que alguien invierta 76 millones de euros a cambio del compromiso de la gestión del monumento, con el fin de amortizar el gasto y obtener beneficios en unos 15 años. Poco después del acuerdo con la familia Chillida, el consejero Domingo Berriel, ya apunta otras posibles fórmulas de financiación, en caso de inviabilidad económica y habla de un estudio económico financiero que nadie conoce. La situación de estos megaproyectos culturales es tan delicada, que la familia del escultor acaba de cerrar el emblemático museo Chillida Leku, por quiebra económica. Así y todo, el gobierno de Canarias les otorga el 50% de la representación de la futura fundación de gestión de la obra.
d. Existen muchas incertidumbres legales, aún no resueltas y pendiente de sentencia, como la que recurre los primeros actos administrativos que inician el expediente de Tindaya, en uno de los cuales participó el propio Domingo Berriel, actual consejero de Medio Ambiente del Gobierno y promotor de la obra de Chillida. Otras de las incertidumbres legales, son el recurso de FCC contra ciertos actos del gobierno y, más recientemente, el recurso contra las Normas de Conservación, por ser perversamente contrarias al fundamento de protección de la montaña.
e. Por último, hay que recordar que la aprobación del Proyecto Monumental y la Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental que aprueba la COTMAC, establece más de 25 condicionantes, muchos de ellos complejos estudios técnicos, que se tendrán que llevar a cabo antes del inicio de las obras y que, en algunos casos, podrán condicionar el propio proyecto. Debería informar el gobierno si el dinero para pagar esos estudios técnicos, algunos muy costosos, también será sufragado por la empresa privada que financie la ejecución de la obra. Frente a la decisión del Gobierno de Canarias de crear una fundación para explotar el monumento en la montaña de Tindaya, un proyecto que ya ha provocado un grave daño económico a la sociedad canaria, que se ha convertido en uno de los mayores escándalos políticos de las islas y ha recibido un rechazo social mayoritario, instamos al Gobierno de Canarias, al Parlamento autonómico, al Cabildo de Fuerteventura y a las fuerzas políticas a que lo retiren y trabajen en un Nuevo Proyecto de Recuperación y Potenciación de los verdaderos valores de ese emblema de nuestro patrimonio natural y cultural, que genere de una vez por todas beneficios culturales y económicos a los habitantes de la isla y no falsas promesas. Llamamos a la ciudadanía a movilizarse, a extender la información sobre el proyecto y a impulsar un debate público sobre el futuro de Tindaya.
YouTube (14:54) : Rueda de prensa de miembros de la comunidad científica presentando un Manifiesto contra la destrucción de Tindaya. 1 de julio 2011
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>Tindaya: la montaña de los Chillida. Jesús Giráldez Macía. 30 enero 2012
tras este proyecto se oculta el mayor caso de corrupción de la época democrática del Archipiélago y que, aunque los cálculos son complejos, se estiman en más de 30 millones de euros los gastados en un proyecto en el que no se ha movido una piedra. El agujero de Chillida es un disparate artístico y un atentado contra la cultura y la naturaleza y, además, es imposible. Y ellos lo saben. Cualquier especialista en geología o cualquier persona con un mínimo de sentido común sabe que es imposible realizar un cubo de cincuenta metros de lado en el interior de una montaña cuyo techo (obviamente plano) deberá sostener cientos de toneladas de peso de piedra deleznable y fracturada. El estudio geotécnico que encargó el Gobierno de Canarias para confirmar -no para investigar- su viabilidad estuvo amañado. Se otorgó sin concurso público a Estudios Guadiana al frente del cual está Lorenzo Fernández Ordóñez, amigo íntimo de los Chillida e hijo del ingeniero que trabajaba con el escultor. Aun así las propias conclusiones del estudio geotécnico sentencian que se levantan numerosas incertidumbres que no podrán ser resueltas hasta que se empiece a taladrar la Montaña. Por cierto que Estudios Guadiana cobró un millón y medio de euros por realizar un informe con estas surrealistas e inconsistentes conclusiones. Desconocemos, sin embargo, el dinero que cobró el catedrático de ecología y presidente honorífico de ADENA, Francisco Díaz Pineda, para firmar la declaración de impacto ambiental que sostiene que agujerear la Montaña es medioambientalmente favorable pero, gracias a esa herejía científica al servicio del poder, se le designó como coordinador de los equipos que llevan dos años trabajando para el futuro Parque Natural de Fuerteventura y en el que, misteriosamente, Tindaya queda fuera de sus límites.
Pero volvamos a los Chillida. Esta familia anda lanzando a los cuatro vientos que su decisión de permitir -como herederos de la obra de su padre- el vaciado de la Montaña no está movida por intereses económicos. Hace ahora dos años acudimos a Euskalherría a presentar en varias ciudades nuestro libro Tindaya: el poder contra el mito. Ingenuos, explicábamos en las presentaciones que una de las razones de nuestra presencia en el País Vasco y Navarra era la de despertar la sensibilidad de la familia del escultor y lograr que se desmarcara, definitivamente, del proyecto. En los debates que se suscitaron en aquella gira se repitieron intervenciones del público siempre en el mismo sentido: si había dinero y negocio allí estarían los Chillida. Ahora, que su museo ha cerrado, Tindaya se les vuelve a aparecer como tabla salvavidas. Si no, ¿cómo explicar que continúen apoyando un proyecto irrealizable, con una gran oposición ciudadana y de la comunidad científica, con el artista muerto y con la corrupción salpicando todo lo que toca? Es probable que la fe no mueva montañas pero el dinero sí permite agujerearlas.
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¿Dónde está?
Mapa de la Montaña de Tindaya con fotos
maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215419575803149330598.000442...
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Un libro: Tindaya: el poder contra el mito. Jesús Giráldez Macía
The grass was so long, I almost stumbled upon it.
idk - something about it speaks to me, and that's all that matter - am I right or am I right?
I showed it to my daughter, she was sooo nonchalant about it - made me feel like I'm full of hot air, just 'cuz I think a rusty cylinder can pass as an artistic feature. On second thought, maybe she is right or she is right.
Battery Park City is a 92-acre (0.37 km2) planned community at the southwestern tip of lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. The land upon which it stands was created by land reclamation on the Hudson River using 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 m3) of soil and rocks excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center and certain other construction projects, as well as from sand dredged from New York Harbor off Staten Island. The neighborhood, which is the site of the World Financial Center along with numerous housing, commercial and retail buildings, is named for adjacent Battery Park.
Battery Park City is owned and managed by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), a public-benefit corporation created by New York State under the authority of the Urban Development Corporation. Excess revenue from the area was to be contributed to other housing efforts, typically low-income projects in the Bronx and Harlem.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Postscript: This window is being dismantled and removed from the church (September 2012). The individual elements face an uncertain future.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Postcript: The windows where removed from the church en masse in late 2011 and subsequently so badly damaged by insensitive storage and exposure (the individual panels heaped in piles in a garden) as to be rendered unusable (the unreinforced resin matrix seriously lacking the strength of concrete). A sad end to one of our largest ever schemes of dalle-de verre glass.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Postscript: This window has been dismantled and removed from the church (September 2011). The damaged individual elements face an uncertain future.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Postcript: The windows where removed from the church en masse in late 2011 and subsequently so badly damaged by insensitive storage and exposure (the individual panels heaped in piles in a garden) as to be rendered unusable (the unreinforced resin matrix seriously lacking the strength of concrete). A sad end to one of our largest ever schemes of dalle-de verre glass.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Postscript: This window has been dismantled and removed from the church (September 2011). The damaged individual elements face an uncertain future.
This window is suffering particularly badly from the effects of heat expansion of the glass and it's resin matrix, which has cracked in several places leaving many panels in a dangerous condition (some individual pieces of glass have fallen out since this photo was taken) The botom row of panels are the wrost affected (in particular the right hand panels which are dramatically distorted)
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Postcript: The windows where removed from the church en masse in late 2011 and subsequently so badly damaged by insensitive storage and exposure (the individual panels heaped in piles in a garden) as to be rendered unusable (the unreinforced resin matrix seriously lacking the strength of concrete). A sad end to one of our largest ever schemes of dalle-de verre glass.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Fallen fragment of the west window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Postscript: This window has been dismantled and removed from the church (September 2011). The damaged individual elements face an uncertain future.
This north window is in the best condition of the four, the resin-bonded glass panels being structurally sound thanks to being on the side that recieves no sunlight, and therefore no heat expansion or distortion has taken place.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Postcript: The windows where removed from the church en masse in late 2011 and subsequently so badly damaged by insensitive storage and exposure (the individual panels heaped in piles in a garden) as to be rendered unusable (the unreinforced resin matrix seriously lacking the strength of concrete). A sad end to one of our largest ever schemes of dalle-de verre glass.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Slab of red 'dalle de verre' glass ('slab of glass') that has either fallen or been removed from it's resin matrix. Several such pieces have fallen from the west window in recent years and currently pose a major conservation dilemma regarding how to make safe the failing window.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and curently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and curently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their age, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and curently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and curently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
West window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
West window at English Martyrs church photographed in 2006, before pieces of glass began falling from the resin-bonded panels. (compare adjoining image)
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Fallen fragments of the west window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
West window at English Martyrs church photographed in 2009, showing missing pieces of glass which have fallen from the resin-bonded panels since the previous shot was taken. (compare adjoining image)
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Fallen fragment of the west window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and curently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
West window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
West window at English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work
Birds have started to enter the church through the gaping hole in the west window caused by the fall of a weak transom and the panel it supported. The white dove seemed a rather symbolic guest!
English Martyrs church photographed on April 11th 2010, The defective upper central transom of the west window broke free the previous morning, sending the stained glass/dalle de verre panel above it crashing to the ground where it shattered on the grass below.
It is now clear that the major factor in the declining condition of this window is the poor load bearing capacity of the concrete transoms and their weak connection to the main mullions. The lowest row of panels are bowed and sagging precariously as a result of the weak structure supporting them. Thus the poor condition of the window is as much a failure of the architectural design as much as the nature of the glazing.
Hillmorton's Roman Catholic church of the English Martyrs was built in 1965 (architects Sandy & Norris) with a square core surmounted by an expanse if coloured glass on all four sides forming a lantern, and capped by a concrete vaulted ceiling. Below it was envisaged that four limbs would sprout from this nucleus to form a cross, though in the event only one was built to the north, which served as the nave until the church was re-orientated in the early 1980s when a new sanctuary extension was added to the east.(the old nave being walled off and serving as the church hall ever since). The remaining two temporary walls below the vast windows were finished in brick only in 1990.
The major artistic feature of the building is the enormous expanse of stained glass by noted Welsh artist Jonah Jones, executed in the dalle de verre ('slab of glass') technique popular in the 1950s & 60s, with heavy chunks of glass set in a resin matrix (in place of traditional lead, which would be insufficient to hold such thick pieces of glass). The design of the four windows is abstract, though each incorporates a subtle crown of thorns motif in red glass.
However, times have changed and the dalle de verre technique has not stood the test of time well. Though the east and north windows remain in sound condition those on the south and particularly the west have suffered from the effects of heat expansion which has caused several of the glass pieces to detach from their resin matrix, whilst in the worst cases the resin structure itself is failing, in places cracked and bowing dangerously. Finding a remedy to these problems seems to be frought with difficulties and currently the future of these windows (the largest work ever undertaken by the artist Jonah Jones) hangs in the balance.
Personally I hope they can be saved, admittedly I have an emotional attachment having grown up here, but I also consider them a rare period piece, a bold expression of the kind of optimism and vision that gave us Coventry Cathedral (a mere 12 miles away) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, both of which are accepted as iconic statements of their time, despite the general unpopularity of the architecture of the time.
Any information on how to proceed with saving these precarious artworks will be most gratefully recieved.
For more information on the artist Jonah Jones see the following website dedicated to his life and work