While riding my bike around London, I stumbled upon something that left me asking questions. I decided to go home and do some research on Google, which led me to a Guardian newspaper article about sharks being part of an art competition. Apparently, shark art has a history in England. The article said the sharks were next to a warehouse in the London Borough of Hackney, but I found them next to a boat club in Islington. I wanted to find out more, so I kept searching and found out about Antepavilion, a warehouse hosting the art competition with a giant balloon outside.
I also found out about Hackney Fight, which seemed to be related to the sharks. After reading more, I found out that because of the sharks, Hackney Borough was trying to get the warehouse/artist studio place shut down. It turns out that five years ago, Antepavilion held their first art competition with the winner being H-VAC, a sitting area atop the warehouse roof disguised as an air duct. The next year’s winner was an inflatable yellow barge, and the year after that was the Potemkin Theater, just one wall serving as the backdrop for a stage on the roof. This last art erection drew the attention of the London Borough of Hackney, and so Antepavilion basing their brief on these events and picking the purposefully provocative Sharks! as the winner.
After the article was published, Antepavilion said it contained “defamatory misquotes” and “deliberate misrepresentations.” They requested it be changed and wanted a copy of the recorded interview, but The Guardian refused to change anything, leading to a back-and-forth between the two. In the end, Sharks! won and construction began. The Guardian’s article may have tipped off the London Borough of Hackney that Antepavilion was about to install the extremely noticeable Sharks! in the canal. Hackney quickly ran to a London judge to grant an emergency injunction to stop them. However, four sharks had already escaped and the injunction didn’t require their removal. The paperwork grew from injunctions to witness statements, permission applications, briefs, reports on the history of art on the site, and arguments about if the very existence of the conservation area is an abuse of power.
The Islington Boat Club, with water rights in their section of the canal, offered their club as a new home for Sharks!. Antepavilion agreed to move the sharks contingent on the Boat Club promising to tell Antepavilion about any bureaucratic paperwork problems that might arise. Sharks! now resides delightfully right in full view of a primary school and a public playground, inspiring the next generation of English shark artists. However, if you want to see them, you better hurry while you can. The Islington Boat Club told Antepavilion, “Look you need to take your sharks back, mate.” Antepavilion replied, “Ahhhhh, we won’t tell you.” Grey asked, “But why?”
The Islington Boat Club ghosted Antepavilion without providing an explanation. Speculating, it is possible that the Boat Club was unprepared for the bureaucratic trouble that the presence of Sharks! could have caused regarding their rights to the water.
Grey then said, “Time to go, Sharks!!” and the Boat Club declared that the Sharks! must be removed before the end of the month. They were to be put back into the warehouse, never to see the water again.
However, there was still the possibility that Sharks! could ride again, technically not in the water, but upon it, able to travel up and down London’s canals, looking for a new home. Sharks! [lively violin music, Jonathan Vered performs Capriccio n.18 Op.1 in in C (corrente-allegro) by Niccolò Paganini]