Tennents Pub
WILMA VAN DER MEYDEN
About the Artist
I am a visual artist living and working in Glasgow. Over the years my drawing and painting practice have extended into installation art, teaching, mosaic art, community art, research and street art.
I am fascinated by Glasgow’s rich and diverse local history, especially that of ceramic art and the significant role that tiles once played in the everyday lives of the people of Glasgow. Mosaic art holds an inherent meaningful connection to this past and I enjoy transforming cut glazed tiles and glass or broken materials into coherent wholeness. I’ve been focusing on the potential of this art practice in recent years.
I have worked on public mosaic murals in the Netherlands before moving to Glasgow in 2016. I made my first public mosaic mural in Scotland for Yardworks in 2022 on a railway arch at SWG3. You might also find some small graffiti mosaics on the streets of Glasgow, but these are mostly hidden, a gift to the keen observer.
I hold a a Master of Research in Creative Practices from the Glasgow School of Art and a Master of Fine Art from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. My formal art training also includes studying painting at the Royal Academy in The Hague, the Netherlands. As a professional member of the British Association of Modern Mosaics (BAMM) I receive continual encouragement and support to develop my mosaic making skills.
I am also teaching art at Glasgow City Mission and am interested in the potential of art to articulate the social dimension of our multi-layered, complex ‘lived space’ within cities.
‘Inside Out’
The design is inspired by the flower motifs of tiles in Glasgow’s nineteenth century Wally Closes. Tile art once played an important role in the everyday lives of Glaswegians and sadly many of the mosaics and tile art from Victorian times have been erased from the city. The mosaic that I propose for the weathered electric box will stretch over one side and onto the ends as if the box is being hugged. The chosen materials for the mosaic are mirror and white glass and it would be in contrast with the dark, rough surface of the box. The white glass would be cut in sharp, edgy shards and framed by classical borders of sparkling mirror squares. The colour of the grout between the tiles is to match the red sandstone of the tenement buildings on the street. The mirrored squares are also in a way nods to the sparkling windows of these tenements.
