Art Sheffield Unveils New Gateway Icon April 1, 2011 A new statue to replace the demolished cooling towers will greet drivers into South Yorkshire.

A new sculpture for Sheffield has been commissioned by the city to sit at the gateway to the North – the motorway viaduct at Tinsley, Sheffield.

‘Strike A Pose’ commemorates two living icons, revered and disdained in equal measure. Miners’ leader Arthur Scargill and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will face in opposite directions up and down the M1 motorway at the former site of the city’s cooling towers. The statue will be unveiled in 2014 to celebrate 30 years of the Miners’ strike.

Scargill will face drivers as they drive north, Thatcher as they drive south, their faces displayed on either side of the same body. Imagined by artist Tony Bollinger, the artwork is a reference to two-faced Roman god Janus, the deity of beginnings and transitions.

“He has one face looking to the past, the other to the future. He presides over doorways and gateways, and is present in the ancient gates of Rome. For Sheffield, I really like the idea of this figure who has a deep history of rituals around him – ones that celebrate the passing into new spaces, or even the marking of the beginning of a new month” says Bollinger.

The sculpture will be carved out of granite, and manufactured in India.

The new icon will replace the cooling towers of the former Blackburn Meadows power station, which were demolished in 2008 after a campaign to save them. Since then a variety of replacements have been proposed, including a giant football made out of stainless steel, but none were deemed sensitive enough to the rich historical context of the site. Only now does Sheffield have an artwork to be proud of.

Sheffield City Council has described the statue as an ‘icon for our times’ and expects it to become a world class attraction, with ambitions to exceed the visitor numbers to the city’s museum of Popular Music.

The city’s new cultural strategy defines a number of innovative aims for culture in Sheffield and this is the first action for that. Focusing on ‘the unexpected’ and ‘culture by design’, the city has been looking for new ways to turn the everyday environment for a place for culture. Strike A Pose is the cornerstone of this new strategy.

Paul Scriven, leader of Sheffield City Council, said in relation to the city’s cultural strategy:
‘It’s not about highbrow, it’s not about lowbrow, it’s about people actually creating things using their imaginations and adding to the city… why don’t we use the seven hills as an art gallery? Why don’t we use the seven hills as a recording studio?’ No one was available for comment to clarify this.

The statue will be unveiled by Nick Clegg and an NUM delegation in what promises to be a lively event in 2014, with a live performance by Richard Hawley on the motorway.