Look down on Sea Road near the corner of Owls Road, towards the top of the Boscombe Art Trail, and you'll find a small plaque set into the paving naming a metal sculpture nearby: Tableau. It's one of seven public artworks making up the trail, a set of sculptures installed along the walk from the seafront up towards Boscombe's shopping streets.
A plaque name and a sculptor's title
The trail was created by Dorset sculptor Andy Kirkby, commissioned in 2010 as part of Boscombe's seafront regeneration. While the pavement plaque here reads "Tableau", the sculptor's own title for the piece is "Shelley's Feather" a nod to Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, who had planned to settle in Boscombe with her son Percy Florence Shelley before her death; his house, Shelley Manor, was completed only after she died, and she was later interred at St Peter's Church in Bournemouth. It's the same kind of plaque-versus-artist mismatch found elsewhere on the trail, where "Chemical Wedding" is separately titled "Sun Fish" by Kirkby.
Visiting
The sculpture sits on Sea Road, so it's easy to take in on a walk along the trail alongside Chemical Wedding, Optic and Murano. Like the rest of the trail, it's outdoors, permanent and free to view at any time. See more of the area's coast and culture in our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.
