A 7.6m sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s home in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected monument – and he’s not happy about it .
Key points:
- The sculpture was installed in 1986 by Bill Heine in response to the American bombing of Libya
- His son said it was absurd that the council protected the artwork, after spending years trying to remove the sculpture.
- He said the sculpture’s anti-war message remains relevant given Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine.
Mr Hanson-Heine loves the installation, erected by his father and a local sculptor in 1986 as an anti-war and anti-nuclear protest that still remains relevant as bombs fall on Ukraine and the Russian President Vladimir Putin makes thinly veiled threats of nuclear war. .
But he says Oxford City Council ignored his father’s other message this week when he designated the structure as a heritage site which makes a “special contribution” to the community.
Bill Heine installed the shark without the approval of local officials because he didn’t think they should have the right to decide what art people see, and the council has spent years trying to remove the sculpture.
Mr Hanson-Heine’s father, an American expatriate who studied law at Oxford University, came up with the idea for the sculpture after hearing US warplanes flying overhead one night in April 1986 .
When he awoke the next morning, he learned that the planes were on their way to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for Libyan sponsorship of terrorist attacks against American troops.
The image of a shark crashing through the roof captured the shock civilians must feel when bombs crash into their homes, Magnus Hanson-Heine said. Her father died in 2019.
Heine and his friend, sculptor John Buckley, built the great white shark out of fiberglass. They installed it on August 9: the 41st anniversary of the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of civilians.
The shark’s anti-war message is just as important today as Russian bombs are falling on Ukraine, Henson-Heine said.
“It’s obviously something Ukrainians are going through in real time right now,” he said.
“But certainly when there are nukes on stage, which has been going through my whole life, it’s always a very real threat.”
But the three-quarter view of a great white shark peeking out from the roof of a row of brick houses on a quiet suburban street isn’t always a serious subject.
The Shark House has its own website, which features photos of Heine and Buckley sharing a glass of wine next to the sculpture and a young passerby in a pose that looks like she’s eating the shark.
Mr. Hanson-Heine recently had it repainted to restore the blue-green shimmer of the shark’s skin – keeping it in pristine condition.
He laughs when asked if the shark’s head is inside the house.
“But no.”
ABC/son