Half Moon Bay To Host Ship Sculpture
21 February 2019, 10:06 | Updated: 21 February 2019, 10:19
Heysham's half-moon bay has been confirmed as the site for a new large-scale sculpture.
'Ship' has been created by Anna Gillespie.
The bronze and steel artwork, similar to the frame of a Viking longboat, arrives next month.
You can see more of what it looks like on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Anna Gillespie said: “Morecambe Bay and Heysham are in a perpetual tug-of-war between the splendour of the sea and its sense of danger, the beauty of the landscape and the fierceness of the climate that has shaped it, modernity and tradition and the ebb and flow of its population as industries have come and gone. ‘Ship’ marks those contradictions and opposing forces as essential to the area’s identity, heritage and environment, pointing to the past as well as the future and offering a welcome to new arrivals and a farewell to anyone starting a new journey from here.”
Susannah Bleakley, chief executive of Morecambe Bay Partnership, said: “The Irish Sea was the M6 of Viking times, an important, busy transport route. We’re delighted to bring ‘Ship’ to Heysham, as it celebrates the significance of seaborne trade and our maritime past and present. Anna was commissioned after a competitive process because of the quality and reputation of her work and her passion and engagement with the sense of place that make Morecambe Bay and Heysham special.
"’Ship’ brings us a step closer to completing the ambitious plans we launched last summer for new art and events with a profound legacy. Anna’s work will withstand time and the elements as a durable document of our shared vision of siting art at the heart of our communities and drawing creatively on Morecambe Bay’s incomparable landscape, ecology and ancient history. It’s very much in the spirit of the setting chosen for ‘Ship’ to wait for people to encounter it in their own time, over successive generations and by people arriving and passing-through from different places."
