REPORTAGE – The remains of a North Sea offshore structure have been converted into an eco-haven at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. The giant art installation aims to show the green and sustainable potential of industrial heritage.
Creatures of blood and strange visions descend upon England in the final nights that herald Halloween. Children in wizard’s hats hop around Westminster in London. In Bristol, in the evening, packs of teenagers, all smiles and all in (fake) hemoglobin rush from pub to pub, between two skeleton dolls hanging from the lights of the old town. Thirty kilometers further, in the West, where the sands of Somerset run aground in the estuary of the Severn, a high beast of 35 meters watches between sea and land, in Weston-super-Mare. His name: the See Monster.
This mass enveloped at nightfall in a sinister glow of fire and rust is less disturbing in the light of day. The colossus certainly has four legs, silver scales, hairs of greenery and spits a waterfall of water. But he does not bite, on the contrary. Created by the British studio Newsubstance, the imposing monstrosity is intended to be welcoming. In the middle of the Indian summer, at the end of October, the public of Weston, a popular seaside town in the west of England, flocked there in large numbers to climb, survey, climb, walk and slide along its skeleton. of metal. A former North Sea oil rig, the 450 tonne structure has been transformed into an art installation.
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The monument with the false air of a post-apocalyptic film set – Mad Max or Waterworld, your choice – does not reveal the full empire of its charms at a single glance. Audiences approach the old platform past a ten-meter waterfall, roaring between the installation’s lemon-yellow pillars.
Higher up, the structure has retained its original pumpkin and mahogany hues. On its four levels are piled up a myriad of installations, between art and sustainable development. Visible from afar, 6000 hexagonal aluminum scales, a material that resists marine corrosion well, shiver in the caress of the wind – or its bellows. This kinetic skin signed Ivan Black undulates all along the body of the See Monster.
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In its entrails, a few surprises hidden from the outside gaze provoke the bewildered joy of the children. Here a Cloud Portal, a circular “cloud portal”. With a circumference of ten meters, this reduced and minimalist version of the Stargate transports… misty water.
On the next level, dozens of families wait in front of a slide that winds between floors. The tube evokes a snake swallowed by the monster. Before being spat out a few meters below, the little ones spin from one railing to another, fascinated by this unique view of their city. “You can see our house from here!” laughs a teenager, taking her sister by the arm.
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Green haven facing the sea
Higher up, alongside a “solar tree”, a Windnest (“wind nest”) developed by landscape artist Trevor Lee captures these sea puffs to draw renewable energy, approximately 36 kilowatts per day. After walking through the corroded-looking interior and a handful of stairwells, something of Eden looms between the catwalks and fences on the top two floors of the facility. The old structure dedicated to the exploitation of gas finally disappears under the plants and shrubs of a luxuriant garden.
A man scans the horizon in the middle of this post-industrial environment. This green and absurd castle, transported in July on a barge the size of a football field, is his idea. “The platform has probably never experienced such mild weather when it was in the North Sea. She enjoys a nice retirement here at the beach!”laughs Patrick O’Mahony, creative director of the installation and founder of Newsubstance, facing the mild sun that bathes his See Monster.
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Standing sentinel before the huge receding tide, the installation offers a breathtaking view of the Welsh coastline which stands out in the distance on the other side of the estuary.“With my team, we wanted to create something that would touch on ecology, the question of recycling as well as something very important for our identity, namely our relationship to the sea and the weather.», explains Patrick O’Mahony.
“It took me whole weeks to find the right medium, the right way to express it all.he continues. Then one day, during the covid, I discovered that there were shipwreck cemeteries, including those of oil rigs. I immediately knew that I had found what I had been looking for all this time. The result offers a great playground for the little ones and a unique experience for the older ones. At least to those who have not been intimidated by the endless queue huddled at the foot of the monument.
The colossus that hides the forest
The creator relishes. His idea for an ecological-artistic conversion of an offshore platform is one of the latest – and best – manifestations of the Unboxed: Creativity in the UK festival, a nine-month, ten-site celebration of “British creativity, craftsmanship, culture and heritage”. It was not won. Mocked on all sides, the initiative announced in 2018 by former Prime Minister Theresa May intended to reconnect, in the midst of Brexit, with the grandiloquent spirit of the Universal Exhibition of 1851 and the Festival of Britain in 1951.
The rake was proportional to the excessive ambition of the event. Dubbed the “Brexit Festival”, Unboxed was inaugurated in indifference in March. Mocked for its derisory attendance – some 238,000 visitors at the end of August instead of the expected 66 million – the event is now under the scrutiny of a parliamentary inquiry which looks into the staggering budget of 120 million pounds. sterling attributed to this fiasco. In a United Kingdom in the midst of a crisis, this largesse of public funds advanced by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is going badly.
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At least no trace of this storm seems to be blowing over Weston-super-Mare, where enthusiasm for the work does not wane. Inaugurated on September 24, after several delays due to the death of Elizabeth II and the strikes that shook the country, See Monster represents, by far, the most impressive project of the ten concepts presented by Unboxed.
After months of festival consternation, this monument of metal, water and greenery saves the furniture of the event. The competition of nine other projects, consisting of video murals (About us), a collaborative vegetable garden (Dandelion) or psychedelic theater (Moon Tower) was, it is true, not the harshest. Taken by visitors and free to access, the monster will finally remain open two weeks longer than planned, until November 20. Then it will be dismantled again.
To see the See Monsterthen flow back
The reconversion of this industrial heritage will thus, all in all, delay the inevitable by only a few months. An accepted parenthesis. “The project has always been envisaged as an ephemeral experience, that is part of the charm of the concept.says Sam Hunt, director of programming for Unboxed. It’s better than nothing ; without this, the platform would already have been scrapped to be dismantled”.
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Patrick O’Mahony is no more sorry for the imminent disappearance of his creation. “The important thing is to show what is possible, suggests the artistic director of the project. Notre See Monster is already inspiring similar creations in the United States and the Middle East. There is a way to see even bigger, especially since we have used a fairly modest platform here compared to the mastodons that exist.”
The monster from the North Sea will not leave without yielding some vestiges to the shores that welcomed it. All the vegetation in the garden will thus be disseminated and replanted in the city. Then the See Monster will no longer be seen. The metal creature will disappear, leaving the foam of some memories to the residents of Weston-super-Mare.