A HUGE canal boat artwork, called the Looping Boat, has been installed on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal.
The first-ever artwork on water by ‘art’s master illusionist’, British artist Alex Chinneck, is 13 metres long and six metres high. It incorporates signwriting and traditional canal boat colours to celebrate the history of Tinsley, Sheffield’s historic waterways and industrial heritage.
Alex said: “This is our first artwork on the waterway. It introduces a whole other level of complexity in terms of engineering, logistics and installation.
“We hope it engages audiences and attracts people to discover that part of the waterway which is beautiful, post-industrial environment that has largely been reclaimed by nature.
“We hope it becomes known as a playful and uplifting little landmark.
“This is a collaborative work involving structural engineers, specialist steel fabricators, waterway contractors, professional painters and traditional canal boat sign writers.
“Without question, this will be my most complex and challenging artwork to date.”
Positioned between locks 4 and 5 of Sheffield & Tinsley Canal, near to Meadowhall Shopping Centre, its site away from the navigable channel of the canal will serve as a gallery space for the sculpture, enabling the loop-de-loop work to be viewed from 180 degrees by passing narrowboats and from the towpath.
Made from steel and aluminium, the project has been co-funded by British Land and by energy company E.ON, who committed to creating a public artwork as part of its redevelopment of the Blackburn Meadows site.
The planning application for the artwork was submitted by artist Alex Chinneck on behalf of the Tinsley Art Project Board, which includes Sheffield City Council, E.ON, British Land, Tinsley Forum, Canal & River Trust and Yorkshire Water.
Graham Whitfield, from the Tinsley Forum, said: “We are looking forward to seeing Alex’s vision and our ideas becoming a reality. It will be fantastic for the area to have this unusual and playful addition that will help to inspire young and old to have an interest in art, health and the local waterways, while transforming an area of Sheffield where there is a lack of public art.”
Alex Chinneck has been working in the Sheffield area for seven years and has created multiple artworks in Tinsley during that time, including a sculpture of a car hanging upside down, creating an illusion that was visited by more than 5000 people over six days.
In 2019, Alex returned to Tinsley with a new sculpture – a knotted post box, which was temporarily installed on a residential street outside Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy.
