The Frankenstein Project

Region

United Kingdom

Associated With

Tony Stallard - artist

Defining Feature

Portholes intended to reveal a pulsing dark-blue neon killer-whale display

Status

Discontinued - decommissioned and removed in 2022

Overview

The Frankenstein Project was Tony Stallard’s steel, glass and neon chamber on Blackpool’s South Promenade.

Installed in 2001 for the Great Promenade Show, its portholes were meant to reveal a pulsing dark-blue killer-whale display inside an industrial-looking shell for promenade visitors to peer into.

After damage and a reported renovation in 2003, it remained by the sea. In 2022, its contractor described corrosion as making the exterior unsightly before the work was decommissioned and removed.

Why It Mattered

The chamber made looking inside part of the attraction, drawing promenade visitors towards an enclosed spectacle. Academic writers and a public-art case study connected it with Blackpool’s older sideshow traditions, suggesting how contemporary public art could draw on the seaside’s history of curiosity and theatrical display.

Commissioning the Promenade Work

• Blackpool’s arts service approached more than fifty artists and designers in 1999, then exhibited twenty-nine proposals in May 2000.
• Visitors could vote for their favourites, but the record does not show that voting alone determined which ten proposals were selected for development.
• The Great Promenade Show was conceived as an outdoor gallery or visual variety show along approximately two kilometres of reconstructed South Shore sea defences.
• The Frankenstein Project was among the first commissions installed in 2001; no exact opening date is documented.

Chamber and Whale Display

• Blackpool Council identifies steel, glass and neon as the artwork’s principal materials.
• Public Art Online described a decompression-chamber-like tank whose portholes revealed a pulsing dark-blue neon killer-whale display.
• Descriptions of the interior differ: Public Art Online recorded a complete killer-whale skeleton, while an artist-associated profile and an academic article described a whale skull.
• The decommissioning contractor later described a twenty-four-foot, seven-tonne gas tank donated by British Gas, but original specifications were not located.

Damage, Repair and Removal

• A 2004 case study reported that every porthole was smashed, “Eyesore” was painted on the work, and the chamber was removed, renovated and returned during 2003.
• Chris Morgan’s 2015 photograph documents a rust-marked exterior; Morgan reported seeing no whale while noting that they had not been looking for one.
• Refurbishment or decommissioning remained under discussion in March 2022, and decommissioning was complete by a report published on 16 September that year.
• The contractor attributed removal to corrosion-related unsightliness; the records do not establish structural danger or what happened to the artwork after removal.

Gallery