Wonders

This artwork featured in the Hereford Sculpture Trail (2024). A Meadow Arts Commission. 

Working in collaboration with pupils of Wigmore High School, artist Celia Johnson has teased out a narrative from the phrase “wonders will never cease” attributed to David Garrick. Born in Hereford, in 1717; the influential English actor and playwright is commemorated with a blue plaque on his birthplace in Maylord Street. Referencing the word ‘wonders’, the text-based sign embodies ideas of creativity, art, and education. 

“Garrick’s famous quote ‘Wonders will never cease’ was the starting point for this site-responsive work which hangs in the street where he was born. The work is coproduced with Class 10 students from Wigmore High School whose drawings, inspired by Matthew Cornford’s Installation at Station Approach, informed the letter shapes for the sign.” – Celia Johnson

Wonders was commissioned by Meadow Arts in 2024 as part of a collaborative project between Hereford College of Arts, Meadow Arts and Herefordshire Council. It is one part of the Art + People + Place programme, commissioned in partnership with Studio Response as part of the £6 million Hereford City Centre Improvements (HCCI) project.

Location: Maylord St, Hereford HR1 2DT

Image: Celia Johnson, Wonders, installation view, Hereford Sculpture Trail, Hereford, 2024. Image courtesy of Meadow Arts. 

 

About the artist

Celia Johnson

Celia is an artist based in Hereford, currently studying for a PhD and making work about an Industrial Estate in Wolverhampton. Her practice is about place, community and identity; she’s fascinated by how we encounter the world and its things and is interested in archives, psychogeography, scavenging, the post-industrial landscape, loss and precarity.