Industrial landscapes

These are a reflections on buildings which are past their prime in Manchester and Middleton. Some of them have been demolished and exist only in memory. Like the Times Mill which dominated my childhood walks to school. Looming over me as a small child they were terrifying, permanent structures.

I love the uniformity and repetitious nature or their construction along with their individual characteristics and unnecessary details. Once busy workplaces, the history of the cotton industry is full of tales of hardship with unspeakable working conditions.

I often wonder what stories these buildings could tell if they had a voice.

All attempts by man to control nature are pitted against the inevitable way she reclaims what was hers in the end. There is a sense of futility but also a celebration of the magnificence of both. Continued neglect and the demolition of so many mills has resulted in massive change to the surrounding area.

A constant source of interest as I still visit family there. It is an unsettling feeling being lost in an area which was once so familiar. Of loosing touch with one’s roots. A natural consequence of aging I’m sure. But also of moving away.

My feelings are ambiguous, a sense of sorrow at their passing, but also a delight in the exciting new constructions brought in to replace them.

I want to depict how these structures dominated a landscape. To celebrate their innate beauty. To reflect on the lives affected and the passing of an era.

Contemporary Landscapes Industrial Landscapes Circles and psychology

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