The Shy Black, a work by Finnish sculptress Miina Äkkijyrkkä, left Finland for England on Monday, 26 November 2012, carried by Nurminen Logistics. The metal bull was lifted onto a special transport trailer in Helsinki, after which it was driven to a ship on the trailer. From the destination port, the Nurminen trailer and the Shy Black continued their journey towards pastures new, Barnards Farm sculpture park in Essex.

Miina Äkkijyrkkä is glad that after ten years of travelling around, the Shy Black seems to have finally found a place where he can stay permanently.

“I received a phone call from the sculpture park in August. They told me they wanted to see some of my cow sculptures live,” Miina Äkkijyrkkä says.

“They immediately fell for the Shy Black and wanted to buy him and take him to England.”

Miina Äkkijyrkkä creates her cow sculptures from scrap metal. She is intrigued by transferring the identity of an object, such as a car or a machine, into a sculpture.

“The Shy Black consists of different car parts. I see an interesting contrast in that a scrap car can become a cow,” Äkkijyrkkä says.

Äkkijyrkkä does her art under the open sky, where her materials are. Works are created when the artist is inspired by her materials. Äkkijyrkkä dreams of working in Kawasaki, Japan, where she could work with scrap metal compressed into cubes.

Nurminen Logistics took on transporting the metal bull like any other oversized, demanding item. The company has a long history of experience transporting museum buildings and other museum pieces, such as locomotives and airplanes.

(Photo: © Veikko Somerpuro)

Source: Cargo Equipment Experts, CEE