‘In Praise of Air’ poem is blown away in the wind

Oh, the irony


The giant poem on the side of the Alfred Denny building, ‘In Praise of Air’, has been removed due to wind damage.

The poem was a collaborative project between the Department of English and the Faculty of Science, and as unveiled in May at the University’s annual Lyric Festival by its author, best-selling poet Simon Armitage.

The installation supposedly had the capacity to remove 20 cars worth of harmful nitrogen oxides per day, which works out as 73,000 cars worth over a 10 year period.

It’s okay, it’ll blow over

Unfortunately, Sheffield’s weather conditions proved too much, when strong winds a fortnight ago caused a large tear in the poster.

Despite original plans of installing the poem for a year, the decision was then made to take the poster down.

Due to an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ response to the poem from both press and public, the project team is ‘now looking at replacing the poem with a new version printed on a stronger banner’. Though, replacing it won’t be a breeze.

Let’s hope it will blow everyone away as much as the original.