Beige food, oval balconies and a puff of smoke

Thursday and Friday

Still elated by the joy of discovering our potential PI50 location in Abercwmboi we arrange a meeting in London to discuss the matter, the man it charge is warm and the signs are good ! Fingers et all crossed for Friday.

Following on from our conversation with Chapel guru John who gave us the heads up on the areas earliest Chapels (circa 1865) we head to Trecynon and search for three, we find Bryn Seion and Ebenezer but the oldest Hen Dre Cwrdd eludes us. Bryn Seion is now an English Evangelist church and Ebenezer is in a sorry sate, basically used as a dumping ground by its builder owner, it’s former magnificent facade with beautiful individual rose shaped terra cotta tiles is obscured by stacks of scaff pipes and skips.

During lunch we see a blackboard outside the Pop in Caffi in Aberdare announcing today’s special, new pots with ham and parsley sauce, both Sian and I have a nostalgic hankering for the dish and swing by but it’s beige appearance and bland taste disappoints, Wrights Emporium this ain’t so Sian promises to make it properly one day, I’ll hold her to that.

We head back to Mountain Ash in search of another Chapel ‘Y Noddfa’ (which also features in John’s book ) that really drew my attention. What makes it unusual is that it has a complete, almost oval shaped balcony, most chapels galleries are in the form of a U. On our first visit on Monday I noticed an abandoned chapel opposite the library which had a unique elevated bowed front. I have a feeling that its the same place ( a special exterior as well as interior ) and YES it is. This is it …..the one that I would like the architect’s Estudio BaBO to part replicate and amalgamate with the other three chapels, Salem in Gaiman, Bethel in Trefelin and Capel Celyn beneath the deep waters of Treweryn. But to gain access? I go back to the library to investigate but no one knows the owners but apparently it was a youth club a few years back. God, I only hope that it hasn’t been stripped by some scavenging reclamation company and that it’s distinctive gallery is intact.

I look up at the front elevation, close my eyes and pray to Hestia, the god of architecture.

Friday

In London to discuss the potential use of the Abercwmboi site to stage the show. I’m not going to say with whom just yet as its early days but it was very encouraging and a collaboration with this particular institution would be fantastic.

In the afternoon we meet with Musion 3D, world leaders in holographic projection technology.
The people responsible for the digital resurrection of Tupac singing with Snoop Dog Dog at the Cochella festival a few years back. We speak in depth with Musion’s technical director Ian O’Connell on what’s possible, how to conjure up the spirit of the pioneers but in four sites simultaneously across two continents. It’s basically a more sophisticated version of the old magic illusion ‘Pepper’s Ghost’…smoke and mirrors…exciting !