Exhibition Captures Life and Landscapes in Sheffield

3rd August 2015

A Sheffield Hallam University art professor is launching a new exhibition at Park Hill's Scottish Queen, which features a huge slot car racing track, a 3D projection and a film of a 360 degree landscape.

David Cotterrell, professor of fine arts at Sheffield Hallam University, climbed the 90-metre-high chimney at E.ON's Blackburn Meadows Biomass Plant, to capture 360 degree views of the area. He installed a six-lens, spherical camera in order to document traffic movement and activity around the chimney over 12 hours. David will show the resulting film at his exhibition at The Scottish Queen, Park Hill, launching on Saturday 8 August, as part of stage one of the Tinsley Art Project. The exhibition, called Terminus, includes panoramic views of the city projected onto a curved wall, and a moving sculpture which demonstrates traffic flow using 12 square metres of electric race track and 55 slot cars. It features photography, along with video and sound installations, by David Cotterrell, Ron Wright and Michael Day. David said: -It's a little terrifying climbing so high but the view is incredible and really helps you to understand how crucial this place is to the functioning of the city. At a height of 90 metres, the view is an accurate recreation of the view from the top of the cooling towers. -From the top of the chimney you can appreciate the road network, the river, canal, rail, tram and footpaths that all converge on this point. The story of Sheffield is written in this view you look west along the valley over the city centre to the Peak District, from where the fast-flowing streams powered the city's first industry. -To the east are the coal measures that once fuelled heavy industry and below the sites of the former steel works where Sheffield's reputation as steel maker to the world was forged. The Terminus exhibition, at The Scottish Queen, Park Hill, is open to the public from Saturday 8 August to Wednesday 9 September. The exhibition marks the beginning of the Tinsley Art Project, and is part of the build up to the launch of a major £450,000 public art commission.