Description
Straw and mixed media
Dimensions
98cm x 23cm x 38cm (38.5in x 9in x 15in)
Footnote
Note:
The Straw Locomotive, George Wyllie's powerful full scale rendition of a classic steam train, which hung from Glasgow's Stobcross crane during the summer of 1987, is widely credited as one of the defining moments in Scottish art in the late 20th century. It secured Wyllie's reputation as an artist of international standing. The seeming insubstantiality of the piece was widely understood and appreciated as a commentary on the loss of the West of Scotland's traditional heavy industries. Wyllie's subsequent Viking funeral for the piece was typical of his bravura theatricality but did nothing to diminish the standing of the work in public memory.
While the original Straw Locomotive survives only in images and memory, this second smaller version, a metre-long replica of the original, was commissioned on behalf of the City of Glasgow to form part of The Big Model, the highly imaginative centrepiece of Glasgow's 1994 bid for the title UK City of Architecture and Design 1999. George Wyllie, hauling the Straw Locomotive Mark 2 onto the model crane (guided by Professor Andy MacMillan), gave the Glasgow bid substantial television coverage at the time.