The Leicestershire based artist Shauna Richardson’s has crafted a very British contribution to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games called The Lionheart Project. She is known for a distinct body of work that she calls “Crochetdermy”—life-size, realistic, crotchet animal creations—and, after two years of work, has crafted three nine-metre-long lions out of 36 miles of Swaledale wool. Conceived as an interpretation of Richard the Lionheart’s coat of arms, and presented in the spirit of a medieval travelling menagerie show, the figures will tour the country in an illuminated glass case. The procession is scheduled to start the tour at Chatsworth on 1 May and arrive at the Natural History Museum in London in time for the games, having visited multiple venues and reaching an estimated audience of more than half a million people. The Lionheart Project is part of Artists Taking the Lead, a series of 12 public art commissions across the UK to celebrate the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. E.R. Image: Artists taking the lead commission for the East Midlands, Shauna Richardson: The Lionheart Project, installation shot. Photograph by Nick Hand
