The sculpture is the 'Mythical Beast' desgined by scupltor Gwen Heeney. The Beast was completed in 1992 having taken 12 months to design. He's a carved brick sculpture which incorporates seating & planting. The form of the beast has a number of inspirations including; the magnificent Ohio Serpent Mounds, prehistoric mammals, the bone structure of ancient beasts & celtic dragon mythology, Gaudi in Barcelona, medieval gargoyles & the dragons on the cloisiers at Parc Margam also played a part. The shape of the spine was based on the spiral formed by the 'magic rectangle' used in Gothic architecture as a basis for the shape & layout of cathedrals.The Mythical Beast measures 500cm high x 3500cm long!
There were a number of sculptures were commissioned for the Garden Festival of Wales in 1991/2 & some works still remain on site. Some can be seen on route to the cache.
Mythical Beast was sponsored by Ibstock Bricks plc, Brunswick Contractors & Curtins Engineers. Information from Festival Park: 'Ibstock Bricks sponsored the entire first stage of this project, giving Gwen the run of their factory for 10 months, all the bricks to create the beast, & technical advice. Gwen carved & assembled the beast out of special wet bricks, then disassembled it, numbered each individual brick & fired them. The men at the factory treated 'Billy' as their own, handling every piece of him with care; when the bricks finally arrived on site, not one of the 30,000 pieces was missing. The second stage of the project, rebuilding the beast, was sponsored by Brunswick. Gwen & her artist assistant, Alex Achurch, were joined by Brunswick's Idwal, Inkpen, Mansel & Brian. Idwal & the others had an immediate vision of what Gwen was aiming for & proceeded to reconstruct the beast from the numbered bricks without ever seeing a plan. The craftsmanship & dedication of the builders played a major part in the success of the project. Gardens are the central theme of this piece. It was Gwen's intention ultimately to create a beast that was a garden, a structure that evoked a feeling of overwhelming presence of animal, nature, beauty and power.'