Star Princess Helix Sculptures- The wow factor!
‘SuperNova’ one of 3 sculptures just installed by the artist on the new Star Princess cruise ship being completed at the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste, Italy for an October 2025 maiden cruise. These interlocking helixes are suspended in oval shaped openings between decks 6-7 and 7-8. The deck 6 sculpture rests on a base and while also being supported with suspension rods overhead. The Star Princess is a sister ship to the Sun Princess and both ships incorporate a new LNG-Electric propulsion and power plants to replace the less efficient diesel-electric plants seen in previous ships.
The ‘SuperNova’ sculpture is suspended from anchors in the recessed ceiling on Deck 8 and stabilized with anchors in the void walls at opening to deck 7 below. The engineering challenge was huge considering the complicated vibrations and movement of the ship while underway. The Star P has taken a shakedown cruise known as a ‘sea trial’ to determine its seaworthiness under extreme conditions, and these suspended sculptures passed muster with no issues.
‘ENTANGLEMENT’– Here you see all three sculptures in a wide angle view. Two voids between the three decks allow passengers to see the decks above and below as well as the suspended sculptures. The voids and deck 8 ceiling are ovals in plan but not vertically aligned which poses a challenge for the artist.
The sister ship to the Star , the Sun Princess, has 3 sculptures also by Lyle in the same locations in the 3 deck Horizon Restaurant. The restaurant can serve over 1,000 passengers. All of the artworks were inspired by the amazing discoveries in modern astronomy.
Lyle has created suspended sculptures for other cruise ships in the Royal Caribbean as well as Princess Cruises fleets for over 30 years. The process begins at least a year before the ship’s commissioning and involves a design team with members from the Cruise company, professional engineers and subcontractors from the shipyard, and the artist. The final design is then fabricated in the artist’s studio with the shipping method and ship’s access limitations in mind. I create and engineer my work almost exclusively in 3d computer programs. This enables efficient and accurate sharing with other engineering and design professionals and simplifies the installation at the shipyard which is often complicated by the logistics of unloading, onboarding, and positioning the artworks at the installation site amidst the myriad subcontractors, sometimes numbering in the thousands, also working in the same spaces. The rewarding part is seeing the art in place and inviting the curiosity and analysis of a great many people- over 7,000 crew and passengers in the case of the Sun and Star Princess
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