Giant steel artwork celebrating Sheffield's waterways takes shape ahead of installation

A giant steel piece of artwork is taking shape ahead of its installation at the side of the canal in Sheffield.

Measuring 13 metres long and six metres high, the ‘loop-de-loop’ narrowboat incorporates signwriting and traditional colours and is being assembled to celebrate the history of Tinsley, Sheffield’s historical waterways and its industrial heritage.

The ambitious piece, the brainchild of British artist Alex Chinneck, is due to be in situ in the middle of September.

Images issued so far show the sheer scale and complexity of the installation. he was excited to share the progress,” Alex said.

“It’s extremely exciting to share the progress of this project which we’ve been working on for several years.

“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.”

The work will eventually sit between locks 4 and 5 of the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, near to the Meadowhall shopping centre.

Its position away from the navigable channel of the canal will serve as a gallery space for the sculpture, enabling the piece to be viewed from 180 degrees both by passing narrowboats and from those using the towpath.

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, once site of the two huge cooling towers which dominated the landscape, the artwork is welcomed by the Canal and River Trust waterways charity that looks after the canal.

Yorkshire and North East regional director for the Canal and River Trust, Sean McGinley, said: “Sheffield, like many cities, is intrinsically shaped by its historic waterways. Still used and operated by boats as they have been for hundreds of years, it’s wonderful to see our nation’s canals, a remarkable national treasure, being celebrated by this contemporary artwork.

“Our job is to keep the canal network alive for boating and for the community to enjoy. It is great to be able to work with such an amazing contemporary artist and funders of the project to celebrate canals, canal boating and our local heritage.”

Alex, who is best known for his architectural installations, has made buildings melt, hover, bend and unzip.

His works include sliding the brick façade from a three-storey property in Margate; constructing a full-size melting house from 7,500 wax bricks; creating the impression that a stone building on London’s Covent Garden Piazza was floating in mid-air; inverting a 37-metre electricity pylon to stand on its very tip; and unzipping the walls, floors and façade of a factory in Milan.

He has been working in the Sheffield area for seven years and has already created multiple artworks in Tinsley during that time, including a sculpture of a car hanging upside down, that was visited by more than 5,000 people over six days.

A knotted post box, which was temporarily installed on a residential street outside Tinsley Meadows Primary Academy, was another of his creations installed in 2019.

Graham Whitfield, of local charity 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, whilst transforming an area of Sheffield, where there is a lack of public art.”

Chris Lovatt, Chief Operating Officer for Energy Infrastructure Solutions at E.ON, added: “We committed to funding a public artwork that reflects the industrial past of Sheffield as part of our redevelopment of the Blackburn Meadows site into the renewable energy plant that serves the city today.

“This is a project that’s been a few years in the making and we can’t wait to see it come to fruition.”