Joanna Kessel and Aproxima: Glasgow Wellspring Mosaic

Title:  Glasgow Wellspring Mosaic
Artist: Joanna Kessel and Aproxima
Location: Glasgow Cathedral
Date: 2025

This work was shortlisted for the A+C Award for a permanent art commission within the building or grounds of a place of worship in the UK 2026.

Bryan Biggs, chair of the judging panel for the A+C Award writes:

“Our final visit was to the Glasgow Wellspring Mosaic by Joanna Kessel and Aproxima Arts at Glasgow Cathedral. The commission, installed last year, brought back to life a mediaeval wellspring that had a foundational role in the birth of Glasgow. This 770-year-old sacred site, a powerful symbol of spiritual healing and community gathering, drew thousands of pilgrims from across Europe, becoming the centrepiece of the Cistercian Cathedral, but it had largely been forgotten. This neglect had allowed a vital piece of the city’s history to remain untold and inaccessible.

The idea for a circular mosaic to bring the well back to life was initiated by Aproxima, working with leading mosaicist, Joanna Kessel and a wider team. The aim was to reawaken the well’s significance, making visible its legacy as a site of convergence, healing, and hope, and to reinterpret it as a contemporary ‘wellspring’ for the city and its people — ‘a place of blessing, wishing, and reflection’.

This hugely ambitious undertaking was logistically challenging, as we learned from Dolly Dean of Aproxima. Site preparations included removal of the hoard from the four-metre-deep well, which revealed a fascinating collection of votive offerings. Creating 1,000 handblown tiles of coloured glass, each inlaid with pressed gold leaf plates, involved cutting-edge construction: an aluminium honeycomb cylindrical form and the same material used on spacecraft shields and cladding for the Hadron Collider. The circular mosaic had to be fitted with millimetre-wide precision and was ingeniously lowered into the well without touching the sides or capped floor, using a specially constructed gantry.

Now reflecting light and water, the well is attracting a constant flow of visitors. A permanent legacy of Glasgow’s 850th anniversary last year, the artwork will also help the Cathedral connect with people, including local communities who have historically been excluded such as low income, refugee and asylum-seeking families.”

Further information

Medium: mosaic, gold leaf, aluminium
Permanent display
See Kessel’s Wellspring Mosaic on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: Glasgow Cathedral