DING>>D0NG

Andy McCluskey, Peter Saville and Hambi Haralambous
FACT (2nd January - 22nd February 2009)

Reviewed by Ruth Dillon

From Palladio to the Bauhaus, art and architecture have often married the same vision for purpose and function, namely beauty.

The aesthetics of postmodern industrial architecture has too often been overlooked. The Energy Suite explores the mammoth proportions of the northwest’s industrial landscape, removing power stations, gas terminals and wind turbines from their ‘natural’ locations and presenting them in a formal gallery space. It is here they become artistic structures in their own right.

Using the natural rhythms of industrial machinery, layered with McCluskey and Kershaw's sound composition. Haralambous - a video artist - manages to create a sculptural dynamo, enabling the viewer to experience industry as art.

Slagheaps of Dinorwig become as visually stunning as mediaeval ruins, whilst with the interior footage of machinery, one cannot help but to find the obvious influence and relationship with more modern and iconic architectural feats, such as Centre de George Pompidou to name but one.

The architectural language is simple and stunning and testament to the ever-changing and evolving state of Britain’s landscape, and although this installation is not as large as Le Corbusier, it is as relevant and architecturally as it is culturally and artistically.

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