Bella the Beithir unveiled in Glasgow
STOCKINGFIELD Bridge is now literally and figuratively on the map with the unveiling in February of Scotland’s largest community mosaic artwork project, the Beithir.
The Beithir forms the centrepiece of one of 22 artworks commissioned by Scottish Canals for the parkland surrounding the new canal bridge at Stockingfield Junction on the Forth & Clyde Canal. The Beithir is, like its Kelpie cousins, a mythical creature from Scottish folklore, in this case a serpent.
Glasgow’s Beithir was conjured up by Scottish artist Nichol Wheatley, with collaboration from Louise Nolan and Ruth Impey from Make It Glasgow to create and install the mosaic tiles.
The enormous creature’s head, three metres wide, two metres high and four metres long, has been decorated in mosaic tiles. The next stage of the project will be to decorate the entire length of the Beithir’s body with tile scales. It’s envisaged that this will take five years and involve up to 30,000 people. Community is at the centre of both the bridge (designed for foot and cycle and which connects three north Glasgow communities for the first time since the canal was opened in 1790) and the artwork.
School children and other members of the local community decorated the tiles used on the Beithir head and the making and decoration of the scales will see communities come together again. The majority of the artwork comes from reclaimed materials.
Glasgow was once the centre of Scotland’s industrial ceramic industry with a global market.
Nichol has affectionately named his creation Bella, a nod to his hero and mentor, the late Alisdair Gray, who he worked with for 15 years. Bella is the main character in Gray’s novel Poor Things, which has recently been adapted for film.