Attack of the Steampunk Spider Princess
Liverpool suffers a giant insect invasion – and it’s not The Beatles! A huge Steampunk Spider Princess takes her place on the city’s skyline.
Yes, it is. No, this is not Photoshopped. This is in fact a massive thirty six tonne hydraulic spider scaling the side of a city block in Liverpool, England. The city is of course best known for The Beatles. However, during its time as the European City of Culture visitors to one of its main railway stations, Lime Street, could have been forgiven for thinking that the city had been invaded by a different type of insect altogether.
Through the windows of the station as they exited they would have caught their first site of La Princesse, a huge steampunk spider and the creation of the French company La Machine. One can only hope that arachnaphobes in the locality were given good forewarning – this particular sight could well induce the occasional myocardial infarction.
Steampunk is often denoted by a cross pollination of ideas from the past – a Victorian age of steam – combined with elements of fantasy and science fiction that arose during that era. True enough, La Princesse looks as if she could easily be straight from the pages of Jules Verne or HG Wells. Representative of a technology path that could have been but, perhaps relievedly, was not taken, La Princesse is a vision of our attempts at robotics, but invented during an earlier or even alternative time. Although La Princesse was on an almost contemporary office block the Victorian veneer of most of Liverpool city center was a perfect place from which to view the awesome arachnid from afar.
La Machine, though, did not simply plonk the spider on the office block and let it be (with apologies to Lennon and McCartney). La Princesse was the centre point of a four day piece of performance art during early September 2008. Scientists, played by members of the La Machine company, removed the spider to Albert Dock – to a place of quarantine as they feared that the spider was about to lay her eggs. Interviews were given by the scientists to willingly credulous members of the press – perhaps relieved that for once they were listening to ‘lies’ rather than writing them.
Its final destination, after spraying hosts of Liverpudlians with water and escorting them like some spidery Pied Piper through the streets (with huge amounts of fireworks too) was the Queensway Tunnel. Tens of thousands of people took part in this part of the performance. At the Queensway, La Princesse foraged around for a while and finally entered the tunnel, lost to the sight of its human followers, never to be seen again.
So what was a French spider doing scaling the walls of a Liverpool office block and stalking the streets like a great big giant stalky thing? The city is undergoing a transformation, due partly to its status in 2008 as European City of Culture but also because of the tenacity of its citizens. Once virtually declared a write off – closed effectively due to the decline in traffic to its ports – the city has had to pull itself up by its bootstraps and reinvent itself. Liverpudlians have always had some style when it comes to the showy and 2008 was to be no exception.
The European City of Culture programme designates one place each year to showcase not only its culture but that of the entire European Union. By many British people, Liverpool was considered an odd choice for the United Kingdom, with many prejudiced eyes giving the city a once over and rejecting the chances of success offhand. However, as La Princesse – among many other events – proved, Liverpool successfully transformed its cultural base. Although the city may not have changed the way in which many UK citizens view it, it has changed its international reputation for the better.
Concourse House, the site where it first appeared, was due to be demolished. In a fit of perfect sense, Liverpool decided that the most appropriate swansong for the rather ugly nineteen sixties office block was to have a great big spider scale its heights. A latter day beauty and the beast but with something of a difference. Which was the beauty and which the beast?
The La Princesse spectacular cost one and a half million pounds (and because it was a free event it has sadly lost several hundred thousand). Despite the loss it was an enormous popular success. It is hoped that La Princesse will return to live permanently in the city and negotiations are underway. It is, perhaps, best left to Phil Redmond, the Artistic Director of the Liverpool City of Culture company, to sum up the La Princesse experience. With some typically Scouse pragmatism, he proclaimed the event a success. At the very least it was, he said, cheaper than getting Macca (Sir Paul McCartney) in to do a show!
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43 Comments
Christine Ramsay, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
I really enjoyed this article. liverpool is close to where I used to live and I actually taught in Anfield so this is a trip down memory lane with a difference for me. Thank you.
Christine
Hein Marais, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
This is cool. I wish I was there to see it.
Louie Jerome, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
I am arachnophobic ! Yuk! *** Runs for the door***. Interesting article though.
Emma C S, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Awesome! I’m a sucker for anything vaguely steampunk, it’s just the best style! Thanks for posting this!
Sharazad, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
That is so neat. I wish they would put a big spider in Atlanta…and I never knew what people from Liverpool were called.Now I know: Liverpudlians.
Lol. My IQ raises ten points every time I read one fo your articles.
nutuba, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Wonderful article! This was such an enjoyable and well written post. I keep telling my kids, “Spiders are good, spiders are good,” but I think I’d flip out if I saw something this large. 
papaleng, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
nice article, I used to play with spiders when i was a kid but not as big as these.
MJPatrick, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
very nice article, imagine if those are real!
MJPatrick, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
very nice article, imagine if those are real!
Juancav, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Beautiful spectacle to citizens,Nice post.
Sotiris, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Quite amazing spider!
thestickman, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
I’m looking at this and I *still don’t know what I’m looking at!* :-O
wow! DUGG
Adam Henry Sears, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Fascinating! Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.
Lost in Arizona, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Hecka cool art and article. I would have loved to have seen that!
Lauren Axelrod, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Holy, what is this thing?
Matt John, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Very interesting! May be Spiderman will be there too.
john52994, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Nice article, and cool pictures.
Ozz, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Hey cool article, shame the pics aren’t better though!!
Dodgewriter, posted this comment on Feb 2nd, 2009
Cool article and pics. I like spiders and actually have a tattoo of a huge tarantula on my arm.
RJ Chamberlain, posted this comment on Feb 2nd, 2009
Very interesting article R J. Why are all spiders, even oversized metallic ones, all so ugly?
Cheers,
RJ
C Jordan, posted this comment on Feb 2nd, 2009
Good article. It was fantastic to watch on TV many evenings. Liverpool is in my local TV news area so it got a lot of coverage. I’m sure it wil be on youTube somewhere.
Stev Joe, posted this comment on Feb 2nd, 2009
spectaculars pictures. My office is nearby a hilly area. I had seen many different kind of spiders.
Johanan Rakkav, posted this comment on Feb 2nd, 2009
J.R. Chamberlain wrote: “Why are all spiders, even oversized metallic ones, all so ugly?”
Jumping spiders aren’t ugly — they’re actually cute. Big goo-goo eyes apparently can make anything look cute, even spiders.
Admittedly, this oversized orb-weaver brings out the “ick” in me. (Is there a tanker of Raid nearby?) But it was fascinating to see a video on it and I think the photos are great considering the limitations. Thanks for the very informative article as well.
James DeVere, posted this comment on Feb 3rd, 2009
Very well crafted – article and spider. Thanks. j
Nelson Doyle, posted this comment on Feb 3rd, 2009
Big spider! Big, big spider!! Ok, now that I\’ve a chance to catch my breath and collect myself, I can only respond to this piece of great storytelling as I have come to expect from your work – Bravo!
This has been Stumbled.
God Bless,
Nelson Doyle
Anne Lyken Garner, posted this comment on Feb 3rd, 2009
I’m glad this was not in my city. I cannot see the point of it really, but that’s maybe because I don’t like insects that much.
Intesting, creative article though.
CHAN LEE PENG, posted this comment on Feb 3rd, 2009
Haha…the “spider aliens” are attacking the human
’s planet…another version of “starwar”…:-)
Roseedon, posted this comment on Feb 3rd, 2009
This article is very good, not at all what I was expecting. It must have been amazing to see this spider in action!
Alixander Haban Escote, posted this comment on Feb 4th, 2009
Such a very interesting article and wonderful pictures
maranatha, posted this comment on Feb 4th, 2009
What a great article! And what fun! I sould only see it in person if it was anything but a spider – but can’t you just picture these creators leading the press by their noses????? Thank you for sharing this.
Oh, and I’m thinking Ozz needs to check his monitor – these photos are awesome!
Debra., posted this comment on Feb 4th, 2009
Enjoyed the article but not the spider. Eeeewww!
B Nelson, posted this comment on Feb 4th, 2009
WOW – I wonder if it would scare coyotees away? very cool!
nicole, posted this comment on Feb 4th, 2009
gret write up.
eddiego65, posted this comment on Feb 5th, 2009
Cool article.
Shari86, posted this comment on Feb 5th, 2009
Great article, and nice use of pictures.
mimis, posted this comment on Feb 5th, 2009
a very creative impression
Gemma Rowlands, posted this comment on Feb 5th, 2009
I went to see this; fascinating!
Great article
Michele Cameron Drew, posted this comment on Feb 6th, 2009
Hey RJ! This has got to be one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. Great article, loved it!
-M
nynx, posted this comment on Feb 6th, 2009
nice spiders are one of my favorite animals but one that big might make me ummm wonder what is going on.
Paul Evans, posted this comment on Feb 7th, 2009
At the risk of sounding like a pedantic old bore, spiders are NOT insects!! Great article and pictures though. And it’s little short of a miracle that this got past the health & safety Nazis that have infested this country since manufacturing industry was all but wiped out by successive governments, and society was flooded with useless people in non-jobs.
aalbrson, posted this comment on Feb 7th, 2009
Wow, I wish I had been in Liverpool to have seen this in person. Nice article, great pictures.
denus, posted this comment on Feb 14th, 2009
wow, that thing is amazing!
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lindalulu, posted this comment on Feb 1st, 2009
Very good article, if I saw this thing coming at me I would run the other way…I hate spiders, lol