Alex Chinneck’s ‘Looping Boat’ is an Ode to Industry

In a departure from his famed land-based works, Alex Chinneck looks toward the water. The surrealist artist presents a new piece on the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal in England. Dubbed The Looping Boat, the structure is fabricated from nine tons of hand-rolled steel and aluminum, standing at six meters tall and 13 meters wide. Co-funded by a British energy company E.O.N, Chinneck’s installation is part of a larger initiative, aiming to bolster development efforts of renewable energy sites in a series of public artworks.

Adorned in traditional canal boat colors and a sign painted Tudor Rose, boat is an ode to Sheffield’s industrial heritage and beloved waterways. For this vessel, the artist wanted to explore the material limits of steel in order to create a piece that would dually complement the site’s history and surrounding environment. Amidst fallen factories and metal remnants, the boat is named

Marking the end of Chinneck’s eight-year chapter in Tinsley, The Looping Boat is here to stay. With the waterway as its gallery, the vessel summons material fluidity in striking sculptural form. Its aerial shape and skeletal integrity highlights Chinneck’s most complex artwork to date. Like his other public installations, the directness of the boat creates space for open interpretation. “I’ve always loved loops because there’s this kind of continuation of a journey,” Chinneck tells Designboom. “I like that you keep going in the same direction, but there’s a complicated and awkward detour along the way, which feels quite true to life.”

The Looping Boat is now on view between locks four and five on the Sheffield & Tinsley Canal.