{"id":3722,"date":"2008-11-25T02:45:16","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T02:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2008\/11\/25\/the-kelpies\/"},"modified":"2009-02-11T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T14:43:11","slug":"the-kelpies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2008\/11\/25\/the-kelpies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kelpies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kelpies1.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maquettes from which the final works will be produced.<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the choice between Thomas Heatherwick’s B of the Bang<\/em> sculpture\u2014a vast bundle of metal spikes situated near the City of Manchester Stadium\u2014and Andy Scott’s proposal for The Kelpies<\/em><\/a>, a pair of giant horse heads due to be erected in Falkirk, Scotland, I’d probably prefer the latter as a piece of colossal public art. Horse heads, from the Selene horse<\/a> of the Parthenon onwards, are especially suited to statuesque representation and the horse has a venerable history<\/a> as a symbol in the British countryside. It should be noted that between the two works, Andy Scott has the better location, Heatherwick’s giant piece<\/a> is stuck in a redeveloped area near busy roads which makes its rusted spikes seem like leftovers from the stadium’s construction. He’s also been unfortunate in having created a work which began falling apart as soon as it was finished, with falling spikes causing a public hazard and a lengthy row with Manchester City Council<\/a> which was only resolved this week.<\/p>\n

\"kelpies2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott’s enormous horse heads will be standing alone and monumental in newly-created parkland, symbolically representing a gateway to Scotland as they flank and help operate a canal lock. Kelpies is the name for the “water-horses” of Scottish myth and Scott’s Kelpies <\/em>will stand 35 metres high, taller than the Angel of the North<\/em><\/a>. Unlike Anthony Gormley’s static monument they’ll move back and forth as the level of the locks rises and falls. Scott’s website<\/a> has more pictures of the maquettes as well as photos of his other public works.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> ‘Bang’ sculpture to be taken down<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 The Kelpies at Falkirkonline<\/a>
\n\u2022 Meet the Kelpies, Scotland’s giant addition to the UK sculptural skyline <\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Dark horses<\/a>
\n\u2022 Planet by Marc Quinn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maquettes from which the final works will be produced. Given the choice between Thomas Heatherwick’s B of the Bang sculpture\u2014a vast bundle of metal spikes situated near the City of Manchester Stadium\u2014and Andy Scott’s proposal for The Kelpies, a pair of giant horse heads due to be erected in Falkirk, Scotland, I’d probably prefer the … Continue reading “The Kelpies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,41],"tags":[227,229,517,228],"class_list":["post-3722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-sculpture","tag-andy-scott","tag-anthony-gormley","tag-manchester","tag-thomas-heatherwick"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-Y2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}