Glenrothes 75th: new hippo sculpture installed by original artist for town 75th

The Disappearing Hippo has been installed in the Kingdom Shopping Centre. The sculpture has been created using tin cans, card, buttons and sustainable ‘geopolymer concrete. The new hippo delivers a powerful conservation message about wild hippos' plight today.

Stan was approached by Ian Wilkie from Glenrothes manufacturing company, Leviton, and commissioned to add to the town’s famous hippos.

Stan said: “It felt serendipitous. It felt as though it had all been planned. I started off making hippos when I was in my first year at Dundee Art School. I made the hippos here. I then spent a lifetime thinking about these things. I've taught at Glasgow School of Art. You don't come out and go into that place as a lecturer and come out the same person. So, basically it’s been a life of thought. Then suddenly right at the end of it comes Ian and of course, it was gonna end up here”.

He said the recycled materials that have been used to create the sculpture are “central” to the ethos of the work.

Stan explained: “Glenrothes has this really nice relationship with the hippos. They were made 50 years ago, the kids played on them, then their kids played on them and so forth. So, to come back 50 years later, and make a hippo in the light of what’s going on in the world just now with these tin cans and the cardboard and the aluminium foil and the old buttons. They’re all materials one would normally recycle.”He added: “Recycling them is a good thing to do but actually make a work out of recycled materials, that actually links in with the fact the hippos are disappearing then that’s a central plank of the ethos of the work”.

The original hippos were the subject of a 2021 BBC documentary, presented by Stan’s son, actor Mark Bonnar who starred in Line of Duty, and The Disappearing Hippo has a nod to the programme.

Stan said: “The little figure on the front, Mr. Hipsterpotamus, was given to me by Jack Cocker, who directed the documentary as a keepsake. He was my mascot when I was making this, so I felt it would be appropriate to leave him on the sculpture”.

At the centre of the arwtwork there is also a smaller hippopotamus which is central to the inspiration behind the sculpture. A lesson should be learned from the story, according to Stan who explained: “Little Loner, the little figure in the middle. It was a hippopotamus who died in Africa. An older hippo came and tried to breathe into Little Loner to stop them from dying but he failed.

“But it was that act of love that is the grounding for all future. It has to be for future relationships between people and the environment”.

The Disappearing Hippo can be seen at the Kingdom Shopping Centre until September.