Sculpture moved ... so that mobile users don’t bump into it as they text!
AT 20ft high, 15ft wide and weighing one ton, The Kiss sculpture is hard to miss. But some passers- by were so engrossed in texting on their mobile phones that they failed to spot the monumental work of art and walked straight into it.
Now, amid health and safety fears, the giant clasping hands, made from galvanised steel wire, have had to be moved well out of the way using a crane.
The sculpture’s creator, British artist Sophie Ryder, had wanted the piece to be interactive – but did not expect pedestrians to connect with it quite so literally.
She initially had it positioned arching over a walkway leading to Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, hoping visitors would enjoy walking through it.
But some failed to notice the huge structure in their path, forcing the cathedral to call in specialist movers to shift
‘How on earth do you not notice?
the artwork 15ft to the side, on to the surrounding grass.
The clumsy pedestrians clattering into the sculpture appear to support findings that one in eight Britons have put themselves at risk of injury by looking at their phones while walking.
According to the National Accident Helpline, 13 per cent of people have walked into someone or something while checking their mobile phone.
Young people were particularly likely to be distracted by their phones, with nearly half of 16 to 24year-olds bumping into something while using them.
Yesterday Miss Ryder, of Winson, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said of the sculpture: ‘My fiance is 6ft 4in and he has never bumped his head on it so we thought we were pretty safe.
‘But people were walking along the path and basically not looking where they were going because they were looking down at their phones. How on earth do you not notice a sculpture that size?
‘It’s sad that people are not looking ahead of themselves in life in general because of mobile phones.’
The sculpture, named The Kiss because the thumbs are ‘kissing’, was put in place last week for an exhibition called Relationships, running until July 3.
It also features statues of mythical animals – which Miss Ryder specialises in – such as minotaurs and half-women half-hares.
The 53-year-old added that The Kiss was moved, at a cost of ‘several hundred pounds’, two days after the temporary exhibition began last week.
She posted on her Facebook page a video of it being hoisted up by the crane, prompting a series of comments expressing disbelief at those who had walked into it.
One woman wrote: ‘No wonder people walk into lampposts and in front of cars if they can fail to see a ginormous sculpture and walk into it!!!!’
Another added: ‘We absolutely loved your [statues of] rabbits and didn’t walk into any of them! Sorry some people are complete numpties.’
A Salisbury Cathedral source said: ‘We had no complaints, but there were observations from three people that they had encountered ‘Relationships’ probably in a way that was not intended.
‘It was decided that it ought to be moved – before anything serious happened.’
Salisbury Cathedral’s treasurer, Canon Dr Robert Titley, 60 – who was responsible for the decision to move the sculpture – said: ‘ It’s called The Kiss, not the Glasgow Kiss [a head-butt].
‘It invites people to walk underneath and we thought it would be perfect during the day, and it worked well, but there were incidents of people walking into it in the dark.
‘What’s remarkable is it looks like basket-work, but when you get close it’s rather rigid, hard and pretty heavy.’