British artist Alex Chinneck has unveiled a striking six-metre-high, looped canal boat on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal in England, presenting a “playful distortion of the familiar.” This remarkable sculpture, measuring 13 metres in length and six metres in height, is designed to honor the canal’s rich heritage while offering a free-to-visit artistic experience that appears to float effortlessly above the water. With this whimsical creation, Chinneck seeks to highlight the canal’s historical significance in a contemporary and engaging manner.
Chinneck expressed his vision for the project, stating, “All of our surreal public artworks [in Tinsley] share the sculptural language of fluidity in a typically inflexible form.” He emphasized the importance of the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal, a 200-plus-year-old treasure on the city’s outskirts, and the desire to promote its recreational use and hidden charm. The choice of a canal boat as the centerpiece of the installation is contextually relevant, offering a surreal twist on something familiar.
The installation is strategically located alongside the Sheffield Ikea, moored between locks four and five of the canal, allowing visitors to appreciate it from both the towpath and passing boats. The main structure of the boat is crafted from eight tonnes of steel, paying homage to the city’s storied steel-working legacy, while the upper, looped section is made from rolled aluminum. Chinneck remarked on the historical significance of the canal, noting that it was once flanked by brick factories and chimneys integral to Sheffield’s steel industry.
To bring this ambitious vision to life, the installation was constructed in prefabricated sections, which were transported along the canal to the site. Once there, the pieces were assembled and positioned on a frame embedded in the canal bed. Chinneck’s goal was to create an intervention that not only celebrates the canal’s history and industrial roots but also introduces a contemporary artwork infused with a playful and positive spirit.
The artwork was designed to reflect the nearby canal boats, featuring a White Rose as a nod to Sheffield, and was aptly named The Industry, after the first vessel to traverse the canal in 1819. Chinneck noted that the canal’s location introduced an additional layer of intricacy to the already challenging project, as the sections had to navigate through locks and the water level needed to be lowered to allow passage beneath bridges. “Working within a canal system adds a layer of complexity that we’ve not experienced before,” Chinneck remarked. “There is no vehicular access to the site, so we transported the two sections of the artwork by canal.”
The journey was quite remarkable, spanning two miles from Rotherham to Sheffield, passing through eight locks, under eight bridges, and beneath the M1. The steel hull section was floated along the waterway and scuttled into position to allow the boat to fill with water. Meanwhile, the aluminium loop was transported in a specialized hopper and is thought to be the tallest structure to navigate the canal system in the past 70 years. “Over a mile of the canal was lowered by up to 70 centimetres, leaving just a few centimetres of clearance between the loop and the lowest rail bridge,” he explained. “In short, it was tricky,” he added. “Using the canal as a means of transportation and assembly added cost but unquestionably added charm.”