Watermark

Watermark is a city centre intervention commissioned by Cardiff Contemporary Arts Festival. The site specific work draws attention to Cardiff's forgotten historic canal system. In the Nineteenth century, canals and feeder canals ran through Cardiff, carrying iron, steel and coal to the docks from the valleys. Today, Cardiff's canal system still runs silently beneath city centre pavements. Johana has redrawn part of the route of the Glamorganshire canal onto the pavement using pressurised water. The path and dimensions of the canal were true to that of the original canal and specially designed stencils were used to 'write' the name and date of the canal onto the pavement beside it. The text was traced from a 17th Century map and could be viewed from the third floor of the central library. The artwork was durational and temporary and was visible for between 1-4 weeks and it eventually faded back into a memory. www.cardiffcontemporary.co.uk/watermark