‘Light Bridge’ responds to the surrounding ferrous architecture, via a superimposed architecture of light. The piece is formed using two pairs high intensity lasers positioned on the west and east banks of the Conwy River, and features contributions by artists Marc Rees and Bedwyr Williams, Alfredo Cramerotti - Director MOSTYN Llandudno, Ken Rimmer (oldest mussel fisherman in Conwy) and the communities of Conwy and Deganwy.
 
This new structure examines the underlying elements and design used in the span of Thomas Telford’s road bridge over the Conwy River, and generates a contemporary expression connecting the two opposing river frontages.
 
Telford’s bridge was one of the first of its kind anywhere in the world and used new technology, thinking and processes in its creation. Underlying its construction were the repeated elements of: link, lattice and rod. Against these essential engineering features, Telford superimposed artistic embellishments and motifs on the structure, playful references to the surrounding architecture, reflecting the intention that his bridge should ‘sit’ harmoniously within the space.
 
‘Light Bridge’ refers to these construction and architectural elements and reinterprets them in light.
 
Aside from the obvious connotations of the piece as being a modern statement of how ‘traffic’ is now primarily transmitted by the optic fibre of the internet, whereas in Telford’s place in the industrial revolution, ‘traffic’ was the physical movement of goods, people and ideas; the work also plays with the idea of the ‘impossible bridge’ – it spans the space, but you cannot cross, although you share the experience with viewers on the opposite side of the river.
 
Artists and members of the community on each side of the river have contributed words, thoughts, feelings that they want to share across the space, using the bridge as a connecting force.
 
These words are simultaneously transmitted by the lasers pairs on each river bank, each one only visible to the distant viewer, creating an unconsciously shared experience.