Originally Posted by wiki
La Princesse is a 50-foot (13-metre) mechanical spider designed and operated by French performance art company La Machine. The spider was showcased in Liverpool, England, as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations, travelling around the city between 3rd-7th September.[1]
On Wednesday, 3rd September the spider appeared for the first time on the side of Concourse House, a derelict tower block in Lime Street, which had been designed by architect Richard Seifert and was scheduled for demolition.[2] On the morning of Friday, 5th September, the spider was removed from the tower block to the Albert Dock, and it became active at lunchtime, moving in a small area and spraying the public with water. In the evening the spider travelled from the Albert Dock to the Cunard Building, via Salthouse Dock. On Saturday 6th September the spider travelled through the streets of Liverpool, walking from the Cunard Building via Water Street, Castle St, Lord St, Parker St and Ranelagh Place back to Concourse House, passing many of Liverpool's iconic landmarks in the process. On Sunday 7th September the spider travelled from Concourse House to the Queensway Tunnel entrance. Its current whereabouts are unknown. Street lights and a roundabout were removed to allow its progress.[1]
La Princesse moving through the streets of Liverpool
La Princesse moving through the streets of Liverpool
The project, which is free to the public, cost £1.5 million to stage. The spider was designed by La Machine's "engineering genius"[3] François Delarozière, who also designed the mechanical elephant and the giant girl for Royal de Luxe's performance of The Sultan's Elephant, which visited London in May 2006. Both projects were brought to the UK by creative company Artichoke.[4] The spider was built in Nantes in France, using steel and poplar wood and complex hydraulics, and taking a whole year to construct. It was shipped to Merseyside and assembled in a secret location, the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.[5] It weighs 37 tonnes, has 50 axes of movement and is operated by up to 12 people strapped to its body.[6][7] When operated, it moves at 2 miles per hour; to move it around the streets requires 16 cranes, six forklift trucks, eight cherry pickers and 250 crew.[8] The spider had seven different special effects: rain, flame, smoke, wind, snow, light and sound.[9]
The spider was accompanied by musicians who played specially composed music by Dominique Malan, the special effects were designed by Thierry Loridant and the costumes were designed by Gaelle Choveau.[10]
The cost of the project has been defended by Phil Redmond, who is responsible for the performance as Liverpool Culture Company's artistic director. He said "At £1.5m I think it's actually cheaper than (booking) Macca (Sir Paul McCartney) and it has got us on the front of the South China Morning Post. So it's good value for money."[11] However, the project has come in for criticism in some quarters: the UK mental health charity Anxiety has highlighted the potentially traumatic effect of the production upon those suffering with arachnophobia,"[12]and the TaxPayers' Alliance has called the artwork an "outrageous waste of taxpayers' money".[9]
Showing the puppeteers: three ride on top of the spider and nine under her body, one to operate each leg and one for other operations
Showing the puppeteers: three ride on top of the spider and nine under her body, one to operate each leg and one for other operations
The performance artists of La Machine created a story about the spider. Fearing the spider was about to lay eggs, scientists removed it to Albert Dock to quarantine it and to perform experiments on it. A performance artist playing scientist Joseph Browning gave interviews to the press. Arts reviewer Lyn Gardner wrote in The Guardian "There were times when it seemed to be leading the entire population of the city on a merry dance, like some kind of arachnid pied piper."[13]
