From Crossrail to the Shard, British Steel has provided materials for some of London’s most iconic structures in steel.
An installation unveiled as part of the London Design Festival, is a 35m pylon-like structure embedded in the ground upside-down. This is artist Alex Chinneck’s ‘A Bullet from a Shooting Star’ and it can currently be seen on the Greenwich Peninsula. British Steel supplied 15 tonnes of steel for the structure which required piles 19 metres deep in order to perform the balancing act.
In creating the work, the artist went to British Steel’s site at Scunthorpe to see how iron ore, coal and lime are turned into steel. Alex said: “It was absolutely incredible. Without question the best industrial experience of my life. Personally and creatively it was utterly fantastic.”
His team put together a video about the making of the sculpture, charting its journey right from the steelmaking stage, through to fabrication and installation, which can be seen here.
The complex project which required 524 different parts, with lengths ranging from 311mmm to 12.75m, was managed by Tata Steel’s Rotherham Metal Centre.
The Bullet from a Shooting Star will remain on the Greenwich Peninsula until it is expected the land on which it stands will be developed for housing. It will then be taken down and the steel recycled.