The SEE Monster, a decommissioned North Sea platform art installation, is set to arrive at the Tropicana in Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday.
The SEE Monster Facebook page shared that the decommissioned platform “is on the move” and they will be “following the Monster’s unprecedented 5 day journey across the sea to the shores of Weston-super-Mare”
© Supplied by SEE Monster FacebookThe team behind the installation shared behind the scenes footage “where essential works have been underway to lay the foundations fit for a beast”:
The installation aims to connect industry with the arts as part of the government’s Unboxed initiative.
What’s Kraken with the SEE Monster?
The decommissioned topsides platform has been “regenerated” and is now ready to be viewed as a work of art.
The designers of the SEE Monster explained that “It will explore the concept of inherited structures, be those physical, social, or environmental. What do we do with the structures we inherit? How do they play a part in our lives, and what actions can they inspire both individually and universally? With landscapes weaved throughout the structure that work to amplify SEE MONSTER’s message, the project poses a question of how pre-existing ideas can be challenged and changed through creativity,”
© Supplied by SEE MonsterThe installation will be powered by renewable energy “in celebration of the Great British Weather and British eccentricity.”And as part of an “overgrown garden” a Garden Lab area will also showcase a range of new renewable technologies.
An outdoor broadcast space will be used to create music, radio, podcasts, talks and more outside the installation. With the aim of providing a platform to inspire people around the UK and around the world.
Interim chief executive of Decom North Sea Sam Long said: “To me, this is about offshore meets onshore, industry meets arts and culture, and underneath all of that, is the piece that we need to be doing: we need to advocate what we do in the decommissioning work, we need to speak loud and we need to reach out to broader communities.”
The project is led by Leeds-based creative studio NEWSUBSTANCE in collaboration with Dose of Society, REDHOUSE, Rocket Women, Empowering Women with Tech, Ivan Black kinetic sculptor and representatives from The British Antarctic Survey, and is supported by North Somerset Council.
Why are there no ‘SEE Monsters’ on our shores?
A similar oil rig museum was proposed to pop its head above water in Aberdeen’s Rubislaw Quarry, however, the idea was never brought to fruition.
Those advocating these projects have pointed to a similar project in Galveston, Texas using an old drilling rig.
© Supplied by DNS/ AbermediaMr Long, speaking at the DNS conference, criticised the SEE Monster’s location, saying that Weston-super-Mare has “nothing to do with the oil and gas industry” and asked why “why isn’t this happening in Aberdeen?
“Why isn’t this happening in Newcastle?
“Why aren’t we doing this in Norwich?
“Why does it take a creative agency who have got government funding to come knocking on our doors as an industry and come say ‘you’re gonna come and do something that’ – why aren’t we doing more of this?”
Recommended for you
