Work begins on Darwin artwork
Tuesday 14th April 2009, 1:36PM BST.
A new piece of public art to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin will start to “rise out of the river bank” in Shrewsbury with work beginning in earnest today.
Although boards were previously put up marking off the site of the Quantum Leap project at Frankwell, major work on the scheme was only due to begin today.
Rian Huxley, communications officer for Shropshire Council, said a piling rig was due to arrive today.
She said: “The sculpture will be constructed in May to June. Completion is expected in late July/early August.”
Charles Armstrong, from Shropshire Art Partnership, said: “We are finalising the design with the piling engineers and then they will get to work and it will be slowly seen rising out of the river bank.”
The piece of art will feature in a £350,000 geo-garden to mark the bicentenary of Darwin.
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What a huge waste of money.
We should be using that money to help business and give jobs.
Not building some thing that resembles a giant slinky.
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and this is what i pay council tax for……….. time for a new council, labour run we hope! i dont want my tax to go on a stupid piece of art that quite frankly no one cares about.
a response from a councillor on this would be appreciated asap
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By advertising Shrewsbury as Darwins birthplace creates local business by attracting visitors who would not normally come to Shrewsbury. I think it is fantastic but I am sure a lot of people will complain about the cost and not see it for the art and commemoration that it is.
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I am absolutely speechless at this waste of money apart from being able to say I am speechless.
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Winge winge ” waste of money”, winge winge “my council tax”. I could have predicted the comments before I read them. Great to see the town taking advantage of the river that’s been ignored for years. The theatre is stunning and the art installation looks great. Emma, are the builders working on the piece working for free?
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The sculpture will help to hide the views of the theatre from certain points which has to be a good thing. Conversely it will hide the attractive views of the town we now have from the theatre.
I think it has the potential to be an asset to Shrewsbury but it’s position is questionable. A sculpture needs to be put in the right place to work and I’m not sure that this site is it.
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what a waste of public money, the council should be ashamed, i want them to put rocks down on the pot holes in the roads for all that tax i pay and not on a ”geo park” – this is a classic example of waste by the labour government, no doubt with EU funding to support it, what a shameful waste in a recession, lets get them out and save the money for tax cuts
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Yet another Darwin monument – the third in the Town. After the he left Shrewsbury School and went to Cambridge , did the great man ever come back?
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brimondo…….. you must be a tory then, do you walk around with your eyes closed, this town is ruined, and the last thing we need is “art work” what does that do to convince the people of shrewsbury our council is making the right choices?????? NOT ALOT!!!!
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If Darwins Theory of evolution is “correct” –
Does that mean that:
An entirely random series of events occuring over millions of years has apparently produced only ONE species of “animal” that can speak and show –
(only in some cases it might be said .. LOL!)
high intelligence?
…..Is the “graph” of “development” of the entire species of life on earth against time linear ?? … between the most simple cellular organism at the origin of the graph to homo sapiens at it’s farthest point …or ….
is there a sudden “jump” in the graph indicating a marked “difference” between “us” and the closest memebers (to us) of the animal Kingdom? on the graph??
And if there is a “Jump” in the graph …
What caused it? (careful … was god an astronaut etc springs to mind)
If the theory is correct- why do we not see some much more close “relationship in terms of speech and ability” between “us” and some members of the animal kingdom?
Are the apes catching us up?
Will they be able to speak and produce the ape equivalent of Einsten et al in a few thousand years?
Becuase ….
Surely evolution is continuous …and I don’t see how evolution explains completely how Humans “came to be” in apparent isolation in relation to the rest of living things
An explanation please? .. before building works of art?
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Eva – would that be the lovely view of the shrewsbury hotel pub or the barker street car parks that the sculpture is blocking? I’ve never thought them to be very attractive myself and dont recall seeing them in any guide books but then what do I know?
Incidently the views from theatre Severns balconys are great. To the left you overlook the town and to the right the bend in the river into the quarry, really pretty. For those culture vultures amongst you, there is even a cracking view of the shrewsbury hotel and barker street car parks!
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i actually like it, i cant believe it but it just sort of works for me, looks kinda cute but curiously interesting too
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Jonno: with such provincial narrowmindedness in his hometown, would you blame him?
Askeric: with such narrowmindedness still apparent today – and evidenced in Toryboy’s unexplained existence – surely it should be easy to deduce that the perception of a “jump” is merely a humanocentric illusion, based on a rather narrow definition of intelligence and the insistence that linear time exists. Explanations and debates re: the appropriateness of Darwin’s model are readily available even today in objects that are called “books” that get stored in “libraries” and explained in “universities”.
Already the artwork causes debate. I’d say that means it works.
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HA -
I’m not really sure what exactly you are saying in your response? It does rather sound as if you are implying that I must be of limited intelligence becuase I am daring to question Darwins theory?
I never implied the exisitence of “linear time”, what I did imply was that evolution “might” occur “linearly over time”, (when viewed over a long enough time period) thus creating a continuum of events from the start point to the end point. And if so – one might expect one species to be closely releated to another “up the chain” thus sharing similar attributes such as speech, for example.
All I’m saying is that: are these events truly related to one another, or WAS there an outside influence?
At the end of the day -no matter what anyone says – I can’t have a conversation with any animal, no matter how we describe the “human perception of the universe (humanocentric).
So I’m still waiting for an explanation as to why that is – becuase if evolution is continuous – then why is there such a gap that prevents that from being possible?
I’d also point out to you that I do have sufficient intelligence to recognise what a library and a universtiy is – and that the sum of human experience is recorded via the written word – in what “we’ve” chosen to call “books”.
And .. when I was at university (And I came out with upper second class honours degree in Electrical Engineering) – the object of the excercise was to provide a facility in which one could learn through research, (using BOOKS in my day) NOT have things “explained”.
Lectures were given to point the way – not explain anything.
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Askeric,
You’re wrong.
Many animals can understand simple voice commands and be trained. In the case of our closest relatives, the higher primates, it’s been shown that they can be taught a form of sign language and can hold conversations with humans using this.
They don’t have the vocal ability we have, because they’ve never needed this and haven’t therefore developed the necessary apparatus to produce speech.
There was an experiment only last year which showed that Chimpanzees can remember a series of numbers, having only glimpsed them briefly on a series of dots, and then sequence the dots correctly despite being no longer able to see the numbers! They can even do this where the numerical sequence is only partly complete.
An Orang-utan at Washington state zoo has recently learned to whistle!
The primates are incredibly close to us, both in terms of intellectual ability and in their DNA.
Evolution has occurred, over unimaginably. large timescales, and it continues to occur. Consider the humble earwig. An insect which has full apparatus to fly – yet the last time anyone saw one fly was over 50 years ago – surely a creature on the cusp of moving from a flying to non-flying species?
Only a couple of weeks ago, scientists were able to demonstrate that there was ongoing evolution in a species (an insect I think but I can’t recall) where the diet of that species had changed and the mouth parts had changed to adapt to the different food.
No-one, least of all Darwin, has suggested that we have evolved from primates – rather that both ourselves and the Great Apes were descended a long, long time ago, from a common ancestor. This is a point that those questioning Darwin, particularly Creationists, conveniently tend to overlook.
The astonishing thing, having taken different Evolutionary paths so long ago, is not that we are so different to the apes, but that we are so similar, and can certainly still communicate with them.
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Well Askeric, you asked (and are still waiting) for explanations, not pointers. Unfortunately, if there is a Watchmaker, he/she/it chose to withhold the blueprints from us. Which is exactly why we are making use of art to grasp concepts more elusive than, say, electronics – in this case (see picture), the idea of the existence of repetetive patterns that, while individually different and based upon their respective predecessors, together form an overall progression that need not be directed at anything to be pretty.
You won’t find any readymade explanation in art or life that’s not tinted by your own perception – therefore it’s not at all “daring to question” anyone’s theory by the way. But before Post-Thatcherite barbarians take the pickaxe to this strange and quirky trilobyte in order to fill their potholes with the rubble, maybe the sculpture will teach you yet how to have decent conversations with an animal.
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HA – I really don’t (or want to) understand your ramblings.
I prefer Peter’s reply I’m afraid.
He’s strong enough to claim I’m wrong, and then goes on to apply a decent argument with good examples.
You on the other hand just seem to want to ramble on and belittle me in the process.
Thanks and goodbye.
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Interesting that they have used an artists impression for the pic and to get public support.
As you can see, it is very inviting for children to climb (and plumet to their death) and so in UK law (Glasgow Corporation v Taylor) the public authority will be required to take precautions against this ‘allurement’ and I have heard that it will be encased in weld mesh.
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darwin was right the tories are wrong to ruin shrewsbury with useless pieces of art and guess what there is no god, we all came from anti matter, the bible is the biggest lie and fairy tale in the living world.
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askeric… Peter’s excellent reply (which was not out of authorisation yet when I entered mine into it) was aimed at your qualms with the theory of evolution, mine at you putting in question the use of art in general until these qualms have been addressed by the universe. I’m glad that you found an answer, not at all sad that I didn’t provide it, and just a little bit worried about your definition of strength.
However, Footloose has a point; we can’t have art killing children. That would be too… survival of the fittest. Can the sculpture be made of foam rubber please?
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It’s Darwin. Capital letter denoting a proper noun and importance.
Darwin also states survival relys on adaptating to present day environments which includes monuments rising out the grounds, the increase in temperature…
how many jobs would £350K create ? surely this publicity will put the Shrewsbury into the public eye, not just in the UK but around the world.
health and safety would have every construction egg shaped and made of foam.
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oh asterik – not quite !
who gets to decides that speech and thought are signs of intelligence? they are activities for sure but how do you meter intelligence? If not by our own standards?
If you dont comply with our criteria then you cant enter – what a biased system !
strains of bacteria are far more succesful at reproduction and energy conservation, and have thrived for millenia on this planet and will be here for millenia after we are extinct. Are they not then “intelligent”. More so than flash in the pans?
Maybe if they had invented television then??
Darwin states that systems exist and either mutate or fade away, it is only mans misguided ego that thinks we are anything special.
time to get over ourselves..
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I don’t really get this evolution thing, but are people saying that if left to natural selection, some kids will climb the thing and kill themselves, whilst others stay on the ground and ‘appreaciate’ the art? And so you are concluding that natural selection will evolve man into a species of art lovers, rather than nimbal apes?
So does that mean that all this Health and Safetey is interfering with evolution? And in the birthplace of the man himself – he must be turning in his grave.
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Does asteric believe that it makes far more sense to believe that, fossil records aside, that the earth was created only 6,000 years ago by the father of a zombie carpenter from long ago? Think I’m with darwin on this one!
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i like it too, it rocks!
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Brimindo…
Your simplistic and belittling reply astounds me
WHERE in my posts did I EVER imply 6000 years or any other relatively short space of time in relation to the subject under discussion?
IF you read my posts properly you WILL see that the time periods I’m talking about span essentially the entire time span from the intial “commencment or creation of life on earth itself to the present day,and that is many many orders greater than 6000 years !!
AND …. as a thinking, fully qualified engineer, I think I’m more qualified than most to comprehend the meaning of, and the life span of the earth through fossile records (and carbon dating etc etc) thanks very much Brimindo
Again – IF you READ what I’ve said – I’m talking about a “graph” of evolution spanning VERY LARGE amounts of time
That is: where, like a graph of any system that exhibits maybe wild fluctuations in its activity over small amounts of time, when viewed on a more coarse scale, usually approximates to a graph of a smoothly changing function in relation to time.
And: what I’m saying isn’t ACTUALLY disaggreeing with Darwin.
ALL I AM saying is, was there at some time, an external infleunce that DID cause a large STEP FUNCTION in the graph? – That DID produce a dramatic change in the evolutionary process for a specific set of living things at the time?
Please – If you CANT read my posts intelligently, and post a civil reply then PLEASE don’t bother!
It does rather seem to me as though any one DARING to question Darwin is immediately branded some sort of unintelligent low life.
I think we’ve been here many times before when “theories of the day” were questioned in times gone by? ….. eg: Gallileo Et al ?
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Ad Mant…
Same applies in #26 to you really.
I’ve never tried to define intelligence.
IN FACT .. IF YOU READ my post #10 you will see that I applied the word “intelligence” rather carefully.
However, fact is … if we left it to bacteria,(which you specificially mentioned as potentially being more intelligent)…
…. None of us would be having this “intelligent conversation”, which , incidentally, is effectively using “television technology in part” (since you mentioned that at well…) for the communication medium, that you also appear to mock.
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waste of public money, eye sore
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Brimondo, I haven’t evolved sufficiently to be able to see through buildings which would be necessary to view the Barker street carparks!!!
The Shrewsbury Hotel or Brittania as I remember it is not that bad a building IMHO but the mouth of the Mardol with the timber framed jettied frontages and ancient streetscape definately nice to look at from the narrow balconies with wobbly rails of Theatre Severn.
I think the sculpture has the potential to be striking and meaningful with the geological aggragates used to form the concrete but it might be rather overwhelming in such a constrained site in my view.
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instead of wasting our money on a pointless scuplture that we really dont need, why cant they use the cash and REDUCE our council tax bills in shrewsbury! im thinking that when the next election comes around the beloved shrewsbury tories will be out and its going to be a big relief when they are.
darwin or no darwin the thing we need to do is sort out this town and people, not some bearded fella who is long gone.
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well it is a total waste of money who ever funds it, its Gross kids and drunks will be injured by this monstrosity by clambering all over it oh and the graffiti artist’s trying to get their mark to the highest point.Well done Shropshire council.
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