#public art — Modernist Delights

‘Královna noci’ by Tamara Divišková, Park Koliště, Brno, Czechia, 2026

A large, ceramic-style sculpture stands on a stone plinth in a park, featuring a brown vase-like body with blue and white accents supporting a flat, disc-shaped top. It is positioned on a path between green trees and bushes, with historic buildings visible in the background.

This is one of a series of four statues in Park Koliště, Brno by ceramicist, costume designer, and Brno-native Tamara Divišková. Two of the statues, including this one, “The Queen of the Night”, represent characters from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute; the remaining two are a bird feeder and bird bath. The statues date from approximately 2002.

The statues are made from glazed ceramic fired in a ceramic water pipe factory in Poštorná, with a polystyrene foam core adding durability. Still, the statues are targeted by vandals. Ms Divišková passed away just last month, in September 2026, but during her lifetime she was known to clean the statues herself.

Knowing the research behind this post, they make perfect sense, but in situ they read as fantastical, almost fairy-tale objects. Beyond the obvious bird feeder and bird bath, all of them feel made with birds in mind. The Queen of the Night was even meant to have flowers growing from her head. That suits their setting in a park, and the artist herself is known to have topped up the feeder with birdseed.

One more fun fact: her father was an early Czech racing driver Karel Divíšek.

Ronnie, Sheffield, 2026

A mural of a man playing snooker is painted on a building’s side. Scaffolding partially covers his face and arm. An Aldi store sign, cars, greenery, and a cloudy sky are visible in the scene.

Come on, get the scaffolding out of the way, where I’m from they’d be charging £1 a pop just to see him (£2 if you wanna take photos), and a man would set up nearby selling hot dogs and/or ice cream.

What I didn’t realise from the original news stories is that he and his hungry mouth overlook an ALDI car park. Maybe he’s just hungry for discount meats, or maybe even the shoppers.

Cater House, Chelmsford, 2025

Ground-level shot of a mid-height 1960's concrete building, with a large mass at ground level and the next few storeys extending higher in a more narrow mass. On the lowest level there are shops, as well as some graffiti. Above, the next two storeys are hidden behind concrete panels, with the level above featuring a visible fence around it, suggesting a roof terrace. The actual concrete block is fairly typical for its age, but interestingly featuring a concrete relief on one size, and an external staircase on the other.

Ground-level shot of a mid-height concrete building, featuring a relief sculpture on the side.

Cater House, the 1960’s-built head office of the Cater Brothers supermarket chain, now converted to general retail & housing. Featuring a Mitzi Cunliffe relief on the side. Sadly now missing the very of-the-era Cater House signage, presumably removed during the conversion to housing.

Public art at the Preston City Council Environment Directorate, 2024

A mural on a tiled wall features geometric patterns with squares in red, green, black, gray, and white, alongside domino-like tiles with black or colored dots. White lines connect the shapes, and the mural sits beneath large windows on a rainy sidewalk.

One last pic from wet Preston before we return to Sheffield! Public art at the Preston City Council Environment Directorate building. I don’t know anything else about it, or even why they thought to be so extra as to decorate a council building on an otherwise residential estate, but it’s nice to see!

Not pictured: my boyfriend walking away from the freak taking close ups of a derelict council building.