The vision was for an Angel of the South, a 50m-high (164ft) white stallion looming over the industrial Kent landscape to dazzle Eurostar passengers arriving in England.
So much for the vision. Doubts are growing over whether Mark Wallinger’s sculpture will ever materialise after it was revealed that the cost has risen from £2 million to £12 million.
A spokesman for the project said that all concerned would “have to take a view” on whether the artwork was still viable when, as seems likely, planning permission expires in 2013 and construction work has not yet begun.
The mood was different when the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project (ELP) was launched in 2008, a few months before the banking collapse turned the world economy upside down. At that time, Wallinger’s proposal was the instant favourite, the Turner prize-winner’s idea standing out over more abstract designs from rivals including Rachel Whiteread and Richard Deacon.
The brief was to create something monumental to dominate the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel, in much the same way that Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North has become a landmark on the A1 near Gateshead.
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The site earmarked is a scrubby patch of hillside between the A2 and Ebbsfleet International train station. The sculpture was envisaged as the centrepiece of a huge brownfield development of houses, shops, offices and industrial units. Wallinger’s stallion would be 33 times life size and visible 20 miles away. Although Anish Kapoor’s tower of red steel for the Olympic Park in Stratford will be 15m taller, the horse would be the most physically imposing work of art in the country.
The horse is “designed to last in perpetuity” and the rise in costs is mostly due to recalculating maintenance and materials for its long-term care, The Art Newspaper reports this week.
“The costs are now around £12 million,” the spokesman for the project said. “How do you build a 50m horse that’s going to be a permanent addition to the landscape? It would be irresponsible to plonk it in there and leave any maintenance costs to others.”
Calculations include an estimate for the removal of graffiti over 80 years, a reflection of “meticulous” long-term planning. The price tag and the altered economic climate have made the horse’s chances much more of a long shot than they once were.
Planning permission has been granted until April 2013. When this expires, an application for its renewal can be submitted, although the project “can’t last in fund-raising mode forever,” the spokesman said.
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The design calls for two steel frames. The internal one will carry the weight of the statue and will be anchored by reinforced concrete foundations. The second will support wire mesh panels that will be sprayed with concrete and stained to resemble horse skin.
The three organisers of the project — Eurostar, London and Continental Railways, and Land Securities — have provided seed funding for the sculpture but will not make any further contributions. The partnership is not seeking public funding from Arts Council England or the local authority. Instead it is looking at wealthy individuals and companies to help.
Anthony Reynolds, Wallinger’s art dealer, said: “I don’t think anyone envisaged a work of this scale being completed for the original budget. The initial figure provided by the three patron companies has successfully financed the project up to this stage and included the securing of full planning permission, which has been achieved.
“This is a project which is meant to endure. Everything is proceeding well on the design and engineering front and there are active discussions under way on fundraising. Even in the current climate there is a huge amount of support for such an iconic landmark.”
The artist can console himself that he is following in illustrious footsteps. At the end of the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci spent nearly two decades trying to build a giant, scientifically accurate, bronze horse for the Duke of Milan. War, politics and economic adversity intervened to ensure it never happened, and Leonardo’s horse remains one of the unrealised masterpieces of European art.