City Garden ‘Water Mural’

It has been over three years since the conception of the idea for this water mural was developed. Since then a whole lot of wrangling , a pandemic and conversations over the quality of the underpass walls, the mural was finally installed this week (16th March 2022). The original plan was for the designs, that are now present in the underpass, to be used as a reference for painting direct onto the walls. The original surface, however, was ‘glass tiles’ covered in a loose paint. This proved to be completely unacceptable for most mediums to effectively adhere to. Fast forward to the end of 2021 and the decision was made to take the original images and ‘blow them up’ to be printed directly onto aluminium panels. The panels were then fixed directly over the original surface.

The water mural represents the influence of both the river Dee and the network of canals that have influenced the city over many centuries. The key focus in developing the designs was that of our impact on the fluvial life – pollution and contamination. The wild salmon once found in abundance in our river had been almost wiped out due to canalisation and industrial pollution. Children, representing their eco-committees from two local primary schools (Newton and Westlea) worked with Wendy in a series of workshops to develop the designs we see today.