The Headington Shark (proper name ''Untitled 1986'') is a rooftop
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
located at 2 New High Street,
Headington
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. T ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England, depicting a large
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
embedded head-first in the roof of a house. It was
protest art
Protest art is the creative works produced by activists and social movements. It is a traditional means of communication, utilized by a cross section of collectives and the state to inform and persuade citizens. Protest art helps arouse base emot ...
, put up without permission, to be symbolic of bombs crashing into buildings.
Description and location
The shark first appeared on 9 August 1986, having been commissioned by the house's owner
Bill Heine, a local radio presenter.
The sculpture was inspired by Heine hearing American warplanes flying from
Upper Heyford near Oxford on their way to
bomb Libya in retaliation for its terrorist attacks on American troops, and it was put up as a protest against the bombing, as well as making a statement against nuclear weapons, with the shark being used as a metaphor for falling bombs.
The shark was designed by sculptor
John Buckley and constructed by Anton Castiau, a local carpenter and friend of Buckley. Heine said, "The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation... It is saying something about
CND,
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...
,
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about nor ...
and Nagasaki".
The sculpture was erected on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the
atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
on
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the Na ...
.
The painted
fibreglass
Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...
sculpture weighs ,
is long,
and is named ''Untitled 1986'' (written on the gate of the house).
It took three months to build.
The structure is in deliberate contrast with its otherwise ordinary suburban setting.
For the occasion of the shark's 21st anniversary in August 2007, it was renovated by the sculptor,
following earlier complaints about the condition of the sculpture and the house.
On 26 August 2016, Heine's son Magnus Hanson-Heine bought the house in order to preserve the shark. In July 2017, the original house owner was diagnosed with leukaemia, he died on 2 April 2019. The property has been run as an
Airbnb
Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 by ...
guesthouse since 2018.
Magnus also runs a website for general information and inquiries about the shark.
In 2022, the
Oxford City Council made the sculpture a heritage site for its "special contribution" to the community, despite objection by Hanson-Heine.
Council opposition
The shark was controversial when it first appeared. Oxford City Council tried to have it taken down on grounds of safety, and then on the grounds that it had not given
planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
for the shark, offering to host it at the local swimming pool instead, but there was much local support for the shark.
Eventually the matter was taken to the central government, where
Tony Baldry, a minister in the
Department of the Environment, who assessed the case on planning grounds, ruled in 1992 that the shark would be allowed to remain, as it did not result in harm to the visual amenity.
:
Heseltine’s planning inspector, Peter Macdonald, investigated and ultimately came out in favour of keeping the sculpture, with an official ruling that has gained legendary status among town planners for its defence of art.
:“In this case it is not in dispute that the shark is not in harmony with its surroundings, but then it is not intended to be in harmony with them,” wrote Macdonald in his official ruling. The council is understandably concerned about precedent here. The first concern is simple: proliferation with sharks (and heaven knows what else) crashing through roofs all over the city. This fear is exaggerated. In the five years since the shark was erected, no other examples have occurred … any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky. I therefore recommend that the Headington Shark be allowed to remain.”
Media appearances
Bill Heine wrote a short book about the shark, which was published in 2011.
In 2013, the sculpture was the subject of an
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
story in the ''
Oxford Mail
''Oxford Mail'' is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England, owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid '' The Oxford Times''.
History
The ''Oxford Mail'' was founded in 1928 as a succes ...
'', which announced the establishment of a fictitious £200,000 fund by Oxford City Council to support the creation of similar sculptures on the roofs of other homes in the area.
In 2018, students from
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named ...
created a magazine called 'The Shark', inspired by the Headington Shark.
See also
* ''
Cardiff Kook'', a 2007 sculpture in California which had a shark added to it
* ''
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'', 1991 shark-based artwork by Damien Hirst
* ''
Sharks!'', a 2020 sculpture in London
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Headington Shark community pageJohn Buckley sculptor website*
ttp://www.britishtours.com/360/headington-shark Headington Shark, 360° panorama (QuickTime)Planning Appeal Decision 1 August 2005"The government approves of this shark now."by
Tom Scott on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Headington Shark
1986 sculptures
1986 establishments in England
Outdoor sculptures in England
Tourist attractions in Oxford
Buildings and structures in Oxford
Culture in Oxford
Sharks in art
Fiberglass sculptures in the United Kingdom