Annie Lacey

When looking at the brief for this project, to celebrate 60 years of artistic and cultural achievement in Chichester, I knew I wanted to base my work around the Cathedral and the history of the City. I took a trip to the Cathedral where I experienced the breath-taking stained-glass windows and this led me to consider working with sea glass, a similar material, that is naturally sanded down by the rocks in the sea and washed up on beaches. During my visit to the Cathedral, I also saw a Roman mosaic in the ground that had some detailed pattern work which fascinated me. My next visit was to Fishbourne Roman Place in Chichester to look at the massive collection of mosaics there and I learnt that mosaics, just like stained glass, have cultural and religious meanings.

From these I experimented with clay, acrylic sheets, normal glass and mirrors, before settling on cement and grouting to create my own mosaic from sea glass using a cross pattern found in the Fishbourne Palace mosaics and the Cathedral windows. Although I am not religious myself, I found it very interesting to learn the meanings and history behind the imagery and apply it to my own work.