'Dead Bod is as valuable to Hull as any Banksy. Don't dare let it become an ex-bird' please log in to view this image f Hull wants to look for some special art for UK City of Culture 2017, Ian Midgley says it need look no further than Dead Bod. What does a groaning Parisian Bridge and a 50-year-old dead bird, painted on two lumps of rusted corrugated iron on a jetty in Hull got in common? Nothing on the face of it. The answer, if you look a little closer, can be found in a padlock someone's stuck on the new Scale Lane Bridge. There, on one of the sinewy metal cables that keep the whole thing up, some hopeless young romantic has fastened a lock, no doubt as a symbol of an unbreakable love that makes Romeo and Juliet look like Terry and June. The fools. They'll learn. The point is, there are two ways it can go from here. The first is: Someone from the council comes along with a pair of bolt cutters and unceremoniously cuts the padlock off; she's probably dumped him and moved on to his brother by now anyway. Or it can be left where it is and, over time, more padlocks may appear. Decades from now the Scale Lane Bridge may be known as Hull's Padlock Bridge, the place where young lovers go to demonstrate their burning desire for each other by fastening a bit of metal onto another bigger bit of metal. It happened at the Pont de Arts bridge in Paris, which is now so covered in metal symbols of longing that it's in danger of collapsing under the weight of all that lust into the Seine. In Scale Lane's case, the initial act of padlocking could be an act of minor vandalism that will be quickly forgotten. In the second, it could become something that will be considered a local landmark, an important part of our local heritage and culture and somewhere tourists will be encouraged to have a gander at as an example of what an ace, loved-up, racing hormone kind of place Hull is. In this case, the main difference between vandalism and art is about 30 years. It's the same with the wall outside Abbey Road where Beatles fans scribble their love for John, Paul, George and Ringo. It was the same on those graffiti-covered bits of the Berlin Wall before David Hasslehoff danced on top of it and ended the Cold War. It's the same for any number of Banksy murals. And it's the same for Dead Bod, that simple scribble of an ex-bird that has squawked his last on a soon-to-be demolished shed, on a knackered jetty at Alexandra Dock. What was essentially a drunken graffiti prank, painted for a laugh by Skipper Len "Pongo" Rood and engineer Gordon Mason in the 1960s, survived and became ingrained in the city's affections over the years. For many of Hull's sailors and trawler men it's as much of an icon of the city as any of the other more obvious contenders we now always turn to – The Humber Bridge and The Deep to name but two. I mean, you can even buy Dead Bod T-Shirts on eBay now. Sometimes, whether it's through trial and error or accident, things take on a life of their own – and that's why we should move heaven and earth to make sure Dead Bod survives to not fly another day. He may be an ex-bird who is pushing up the daisies, fallen off his twig, shuffled off his mortal coil and joined the great Bod choir invisible, but he should be immortalised either on the side of the new Siemens factory or on a prominent position somewhere on one of the major gateways into the city. At a time when there are loads of arty farty BBC London types with double-barrelled names running around in Hull looking serious and asking everyone what they think culture is, it's quite heartening to see Dead Bod rise from his rusting afterlife to show the way. Dead Bod is culture, just as much as any multi-million-pound Banksy mural is. We should team Dead Bod up with the Larkin Toads for a bizarre animal supergroup; they could close the 2017 celebrations with a concert at the KC. As far as I can tell ABP, are doing everything they can to save Dead Bod and his beaky silliness – his quintessential Hull kookiness – will be about for decades to come. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Dead...tory-26077480-detail/story.html#ixzz3SlriaQxC
Simon Brett, ABP head of projects, said: “It’s such an important part of Hull’s maritime heritage that we have to try and save it. It won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees, but we’re going to give it a go.” http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Succ...ave-Dead-Bod/story-26074400-detail/story.html This was in yesterdays Mail, Has anyone got a wrecking bar and a claw hammer ? Its a few sheets of corregated tin nailed to some wood ffs, how hard can it be ?
It's been up there fifty years and it's on a building that's falling down, start going at it with a claw hammer and it will be nothing more than dust.
Mons, European capital of culture, is basing an exhibition on Van Gogh who spent time there. Others have featured works by Michaelangelo and Da Vinci. Hull has A Dead Bod.
'Kin 'ell, talk about desperately searching for some 'culture'. What's next a guided tour of local grafitti? From 'I fingered Kaz here' on the back of the bog door in Spiders, to 'Micky sniffs bus seats' engraved on a 1996 Routemaster.
It's been a landmark for ships entering Hull for over fifty years, if that's not part of our culture, I don't know what is. It doesn't have to be fine art to be part of local culture.
And its not just "culture" that we are looking to promote here - its also about identity - its about "Hull'ness" and for me this is a really good example of that.
OK i was going for a bit of humour, but the point still stands, how hard can it be ? Mr Brett ABP head of projects makes it sound like he's planning a trip to the moon.
Seeing as me and my missus spent 30 mins wandering, lost, around a piece of "art" in Tate Britain, which pretty much consisted of dusty narrow corridors with the occasional open area, which was a room with crap in it, like an ashtray, or some soviet style posters or items in it, that Dead Bod is a working of ****ing arty genius.
If you know anyone who has been to sea they'll tell you what dead bod means to them! And I'm sure over the years it's created as much if not more emotion in men's hearts then any of those artist could?
It was Tate Britain. Was weird, but free, so I decided to kill an hour or so in there. That bit was just ****ed up, literally dusty corridors and small rooms, and if I'm honest the 2 planes hung from the ceiling as you walked in, I didn't get the point of either, but there was a large area of actual proper portraits which were actually pretty cool. Was also some celebration of saucy British postcards too, which again, not sure I considered art but they were interesting. Art is whatever you want it to be I reckon.
