Casa Crailo

In an upscale neighborhood above the tourist town of Lloret de Mar in Spain’s Catalunya region, a small art environment is gradually being constructed on a large and forested corner lot. French flag flying within, and signs in Spanish, Dutch, and English on the surrounding fence, this site manifests a variety of fully three-dimensional and bas-relief animals and birds of the area, as well as assorted figures from myth and legend.

Primary among the constructed animals are birds—eagles, egrets, and water birds; there is also a plaque with bronze bas-relief birds and animals of the land and sea that are indigenous to the area around Lloret. This plaque was completed in July 2007 and is signed  by H. H. Dijks. There are also bas-relief cut-outs in steel of horses and more birds, as well as a four-masted sailing ship christened the Sea Cloud, alternating with solid plaques adorned by bas-relief figures or animals. These include a bucolic scene of deer drinking from a creek, but also warriors from the past, brandishing spears.

One of the largest plaques on the exterior of the fence features a saint or crusading legendary hero (denoted by the cross on his chest), riding a horse, and spearing a writhing dragon. The horse’s head, figure’s torso, spear, and dragon are clearly evident, but the horse’s body and the lower half of the figure exist only in negative space.

Most of the interior of the fenced-in property is forested and without constructed figures (yet?), but there are a full-scale cow with calf, a seated pig, and a metal sun-dial.

The works on the fence and those between the fence and the house on the interior of the property are viewable from the street.

~Jo Farb Hernández, 2014

Jo Farb Hernández

155 Avinguda Roca Grossa
Lloret de Mar, Catalonia, 17310 es
Latitude/Longitude: 41.7145728 / 2.8519212

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