| Untitled 1986 | |
|---|---|
 The Headington Shark in 2021 | |
| Artist | John Buckley |
| Year | 1986 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Painted fibreglass |
| Dimensions | 7.6 m(25 ft) |
| Location | Headington, Oxford |
The Headington Shark (proper name Untitled 1986) is a rooftop sculpture located at 2 New High Street, Headington, Oxford, England, depicting a large shark embedded head-first in the roof of a house. It was protest art, put up without permission, to be symbolic of bombs crashing into buildings.
The shark first appeared on 9 August 1986, having been commissioned by the house's owner Bill Heine, a local radio presenter. [1] 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 attacks on American troops, and it was put up as a protest against the bombing, as well as a statement against nuclear weapons, with the shark being used as a metaphor for falling bombs. [2] [3] [4]
The shark was designed, created, and installed by sculptor John Buckley alongside 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, Chernobyl and Nagasaki". [5] The sculpture was erected on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki. [6]
The painted fibreglass sculpture weighs 4 long hundredweight (200 kg; 450 lb), [5] is 25 feet (7.6 m) long, [6] and is named Untitled 1986 (written on the gate of the house). [7] It took three months to build. [8] The structure is in deliberate contrast with its otherwise ordinary suburban setting. [7]
For the occasion of the shark's 21st anniversary in August 2007, it was renovated by the sculptor [1] following earlier complaints about the condition of the sculpture and the house. [9]
On 26 August 2016, Heine's son Magnus Hanson-Heine bought the house in order to preserve the shark. [10] In July 2017, Bill Heine was diagnosed with leukaemia; [11] he died on 2 April 2019. [12] The property has been run as an Airbnb guesthouse since 2018. [7] Magnus also runs a website for general information and inquiries about the shark. [13]
In 2022, the Oxford City Council made the sculpture a heritage site for its "special contribution" to the community, despite objection by Hanson-Heine, [4] who stated, "Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd." [4]
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 for the shark, offering to host it at the local swimming pool instead, but there was much local support for the shark. [14] 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. [1] [15] Michael 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:
Bill Heine wrote a short book about the shark, which was published in 2011. [17]
In 2013, the sculpture was the subject of an April Fools' Day story in the Oxford Mail , which announced the establishment by Oxford City Council of a fictitious £200,000 fund to support the creation of similar sculptures on the roofs of other homes in the area. [18]
In 2018, students from Oxford Brookes University created a magazine called 'The Shark', inspired by the Headington Shark. [19]
Oxford is a cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. Founded in the 8th century, it was granted city status in 1542. The city is located at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Cherwell. It had a population of 163,257 in 2022. It is 56 miles (90 km) north-west of London, 64 miles (103 km) south-east of Birmingham and 61 miles (98 km) north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, science, and information technologies.
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Oxford Brookes University is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a relatively new new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named after its first principal, John Henry Brookes, who played a major role in the development of the institution.
William Randolph Heine was an American-born British radio broadcaster and writer based in Oxford, England.
Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, after achieving promotion in the 2024 EFL League One play-off final. Founded as Headington Football Club in 1893, the club adopted its current name in 1960. Nicknamed The U's, it has played its home games at the Kassam Stadium, replacing its former home of Manor Ground in 2001.
Oxford East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party, who also serves as party chair.
Events from the year 1986 in art.
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, in the county of Oxfordshire, 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. The life of the large residential area is centred upon London Road, the main road between London and Oxford.
Headington School is an independent girls' school in Headington, Oxford, England, founded by a group of evangelical Christians in 1915.
Headington Hill Hall stands on Headington Hill in the east of Oxford, England. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family, who remained in residence for 114 years. It became the home to Pergamon Press and to media tycoon Robert Maxwell. It currently houses Oxford Brookes School of Law.
Barton is a village and suburb of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England. It is 3 miles east of the centre of Oxford, just outside the Oxford Ring Road. It is near to Headington, Risinghurst and Marston. Though it is now distinct, Barton was historically considered part of the Headington parish.
John Buckley is an English sculptor whose best known work is the sculpture "Untitled 1986", better known as "the Shark House" or "The Headington Shark" in Headington, a suburb of Oxford.
The Ultimate Picture Palace is an independent cinema in Oxford, England. It is Oxford's only surviving independent cinema, showing a mixture of independent, mainstream, foreign language, and classic films.
Martin Jennings, FRSS is a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statue of Philip Larkin at Hull Paragon Interchange station was presented in 2010. His statue of Mary Seacole (2016), one of his largest works, stands in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital in central London, looking over the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament.
The Barbican Muse is a sculpture of a woman, holding tragedy and comedy masks, by Matthew Spender, and was installed on a wall near the Silk Street entrance to the Barbican Centre in the City of London, England, in 1994.
Sharks! is an art installation in London, England by architect Jaimie Shorten. The art was built following its concept winning the 2020 Antepavilion, an annual art contest.
Laura Buckley (1977–2022) was an Irish video and installation artist, and sculptor. Born in Galway, Ireland, she lived and worked in London. She exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.
