FACT is celebrating its first decade by commissioning an artists’ take over of bold new works from emerging and established artists such as HeHe, Nina Edge, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Steve Lambert, Manifest.AR, and Uncoded Collective.
Turning FACT Inside Out evaginates the entire building and beyond, exploring aspects of environment, architecture, capitalism and augmented reality,
Paris-based artistic engineers HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen) have turned Gallery 1 into a dramatic multi-sensory fracking landscape where boreholes are drilled and waste chemicals are treated.
Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a controversial process of extracting gas by pumping a highly pressurised mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground.
HeHe use a language based on light, sound and image and their work often explores the relationship between the individual and their architectural, social and urban environment.
Many of their pieces are playful miniature representations of industrial landscapes which explore the cultural impact and implications of industrial activity.
Fracking Futures highlights the significance of the debates surrounding the fracking process, which are of environmental and economic importance but refrains from making judgements for or against fracking, rather offering a platform on which discussion can begin.
Katarzyna Krakowiak has transformed Gallery 2 into an industrial sound chute, recording and manipulates sounds from around the FACT building, creating a live soundscape.
In collaboration with sound designer Ralf Meinz, Katarzyna’s installation creates a unique exploration of FACT’s physical structure and alters the architecture of the space.
It emphasises the gallery’s existing angles and brings the outside in by revealing windows that are otherwise hidden by the structure.
Chute considers the relationship of sound and architecture, bringing ambient sound that is otherwise ignored and repositioning them into the experience of what a building is, and what it does.
International artist collective Manifest.AR have created six artworks based around augmented reality.
I Must Be Seeing THINGS by John Cleater tests user’s engagement with abstract imagery by asking users what they are seeing, thinking, hearing and encouraging users to free associate images, sounds, and narrative.
Another highlight of Manifest.AR’s Invisible ARtaffects is FACT Sky Museum by Will Pappenheimer and Zackary Brady which expands FACT’s exhibition space by encompassing the sky above.
Participants are invited to create drawings in the sky and messages in virtual airplane trails.
Steve Labmert’s six metre long sign encourages participation, debate and discussion by asking visitors if capitalism works in their lives.
The fun of the piece is juxtaposed with the very difficult question of capitalism, where the foundations of our everyday lives are challenged.
The fairground-like spectacle allows visitors to vote, and results are displayed in red LED lights on the sign.
Liverpool artist Nina Edge’s Ten Intentions is communications experiment which aims to discover what people will say to a robot that turns their words into writing.
The 13 week experiment will use conversations and ideas on what the future will look like to develop the installation.
Uncoded Collective’s TransEurope Slow installation allows visitors to take a virtual bike ride and explore the development of European cities, including Liverpool, through the eyes of the urban cyclist.
Me_Me Collective’s Sedimentary Timeline is the product of a series of artists and designers from across the North West who have created a way of visualising FACT’s ten year history to display on The Wall.
Turning FACT Inside Out offers an opportunity to explore and debate the role and possibilities for the cultural institution and arts venue in a post-digital age.
The exhibition continues FACT’s tradition of staging risky and exciting immersive installations and follows in the footsteps of previous works like Kurt Hentschläger’s ZEE (2011) and Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s indoor fireworks (At 25 Metres, 2007).
Turning FACT Inside Out is open now and runs until August 25.