Changing Faces - ACE251.2

Film of Smethwick railway and ring road. Smethwick High Street. Commentary explains that one side of the street was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a major traffic route. Francis Gomila walking along the High Street. Gomila describes the High Street and its partial demolition, and about his work with the traders and building owners to decorate the outside of their premises as part of a refurbishment of the High Street. Details of some of these decorations – painting of a huge tap on a plumber’s wall, and other designs relating to the activities in the buildings, such as a fish and chip shop, a drapers, the Red Fort Social Club, etc. Gomila VO says that, initially, the local council wasn’t too enthusiastic. Gomila believes his work also celebrate the racial mix in the area. Cooks and their produce in an Asian sweet shop. Asian clothing shop; the owners show Gomila a packet of henna dye. Decorations based on henna patterns. Shop owner Perveen Sohal talks about the decorations. Photograph of shoe shop from about 1912; VO of Colin Billingham, grandson of original owner. His current shoe shop interior, and exterior showing decoration representing laces in eyelets. Billingham discusses local reaction to the decoration project. Jewellers shop. Gomila in the shop. Owner Vic Sehdeva. Some of the pieces made by him and his craftsmen; the decorations on his shop. Gomila and his studio, formerly the toll house, talks about the role of "town artist". Louise Gabriel, collaborator with Gomila on his first project, a mural of sixteen panels, representing a modern-day Alice in Wonderland, and completed in 1988: Gabriel describes the paintings which incorporate a mixture of "Alice" situations as well as local characters. Sculpture group by Gomila, Waiting for Halley’s Comet (1987). Gomila talks about the time capsule they buried under the central figure. Gomila in his studio on the planning of projects and collaboration with other disciplines such as local engineers. Pictures of two unrealised projects, M602 and Cardiff Bay Gateway.