Venus and Cupid (sculpture)

Love, The Most Beautiful Of Absolute Disasters, popularly known as Venus and Cupid is a sculpture by Shane A. Johnstone which stands on a slight promontory beside Morecambe Bay on the eastern approach to Morecambe, Lancashire, England.

1. The sculpture

The sculpture depicts a seated woman, facing out to sea, holding the hands of a child who is suspended in the air extending horizontally from her arms, as if being swung round. It is covered in multicoloured mosaic. It was originally intended for St George's Quay in Lancaster. It was erected in 2005 on Scalestone Point, site of a former gun emplacement, between the coast road and the sea, and commemorates the 24 cockle-pickers who died in the bay in 2004. In 2011 the artist threatened to destroy the sculpture because the local council was not prepared to pay for its insurance and upkeep. The Venus & Cupid Arts Trust was formed to save the sculpture and to care for other public art in Morecambe. The trust is responsible for the sculpture's insurance, maintenance and repairs. The sculpture was damaged by frost in the winter of 2017–2018, which caused some of the mosaic tiles to fall off. It was moved temporarily into the Arndale Centre in Morecambe in November 2018, for repair, and was returned to the sea front in June 2019. The sculptor, Shane Johnstone, used the Japanese technique of kintsugi, replacing the missing tiles with gold leaf to celebrate the repair rather than attempting to hide it. The repair cost over £4,000, including the cost of moving the sculpture.

1. The artist

Shane Johnstone describes himself as "originally a fairground artist in Blackpool and Morecambe". His work includes murals, mosaic work, sculpture and stained glass and he has been involved in many community art projects, including a 2015 piece of public art in Morecambe's West End, and the renovation of Ulverston's statue of Laurel and Hardy. Johnstone has said of Venus and Cupid: "People love it. There’s dozens of sculptures along the promenade and two that get talked about – Eric Morecambe and my sculpture".

1. References


1. External links

Venus & Cupid Arts Trust official website "Venus & Cupid Arts Trust, registered charity no. 1150570". Charity Commission for England and Wales.

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Morecambe and Lunesdale

Morecambe and Lunesdale is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2024 general election by Lizzi Collinge for Labour.

Government Neighbourhood

Bare, Morecambe

Bare is a suburb of and electoral ward in Morecambe, within the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. The population of the ward as taken at the Census 2011 was 4,067. Bare has a high street (Princes Crescent), and a railway station connecting it to Morecambe and Lancaster. Its name comes from Anglo-Saxon bearu meaning "grove". Bare Hall is a Grade II listed building built around 1830 by the Lodge family.

Landmark Neighbourhood

Bare Lane railway station

Bare Lane is a railway station on the Morecambe Branch Line, which runs between Lancaster and Heysham Port. The station, situated 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) west of Lancaster, serves the suburb of Bare in Morecambe, Lancashire. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.

Landmark Train

St Christopher's Church, Bare

St Christopher's Church is in Marine Road East, Bare, Morecambe, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster and Morecambe, the archdeaconry of Lancaster, and the diocese of Blackburn. The church was built in 1933 to a design by Henry Paley of the Lancaster practice of Austin and Paley at a cost of £5,957 (equivalent to £240,000 in 2023). Its architectural style is Free Perpendicular. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner commented that it is "pleasant to look at, but very conservative for its age". Its plan consists of a nave, north aisle, chancel, and northeast tower. A planned south aisle was never built. Most of the windows are in the style of the 16th century; those in the aisle are transomed. The stained glass includes the east window and the window at the east end of the chapel by Shrigley and Hunt dating from the 1930s. There is more 20th-century glass elsewhere in the church made by Abbott and Company of Lancaster. The two-manual pipe organ is the result of a rebuild in 1984 of an older organ by George Sixsmith.

Church Landmark