The Thornwood Mosaics

Nestled amongst the nooks and crannies of the stone walls of Thornwood, Glasgow you might find a mini bowl in kaleidoscopic colour. Branching off from an artwork titled Empty 1, South African-born artist Wilma van der Meyden‘s series of twelve mosaic bowls represent a manifold reaction to vacant and unsalvageable buildings and a divided ‘broken’ world, with the bowl motif deeply inspired by the global grassroots Empty Bowls project.

The Empty Bowls project is led by artists and craftsmen and seeks to motivate people to participate in food reallocation in a drive to end world hunger. Seeking to inspire action, Wilma van der Meyden’s Thornwood mosaics come with a message to donate to local food banks.

In various locations around Thornwood’s Nicolls Gallery, these mosaic bowls spread their message. Permission to fix these delightful artworks was hard to come by so instead daytime installations in “locations which belong to ‘everyone’” were carried out allowing the community to engage with the project. A non-permanent adhesive was also used to minimise damage to surfaces.

All but one of the bowls was created out of glazed ceramic tiles with the colours playing a main role on where they would be installed. For some, the colours guided where their final locations would be, whilst other bowls were designed specifically to match the surrounding areas of a space already chosen. But no matter what came first, the bowl or the wall, their symbiotic bond is apparent at each and every location, adding beauty, delight, and an important message.