Dean Clough, Halifax

After Chris Taylor's recommendation, I went to visit the Dean Clough Centre, in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The building was once home to the largest carpet manufacturer in the world, but the size of the building (2/3s of a mile from end-to-end) was very daunting, even for modern day standards. The building was regenerated in 1983 and began its gallery programme in the mid 1980's. The small town's architecture was reminiscent more of Bradford than Leeds, especially the buildings surrounding the mill. However the signs of industrial decline were more prevalent, as there were a lot of abandoned sites and buildings, which have yet to be demolished or regenerated.



During the walk around the nine galleries, I was particularly struck by the collection of metal sculptures; especially Anthony Caro's 'Table Piece', Sahaja's 'Homage to Vajrasatva' and Tim Noble and Sue Webster's 'Happy Snappy'.

I particularly liked Sahaja's three works, named 'Darkness of Wisdom', 'Projector Majic' and 'Eater of Flesh Demons', that were from the series 'Homage to Vajrasatva'. The sculptures were all made from collected rusty metal that had been welded together to portray the 'wrathful deity of Vajrasatva'. The found pieces of aged metal were arranged to depict Hindu demons, yet the seemingly jumbled composition of scattered scrap metal, transformed this heavy material, as the work looked energytic and vibrant. I also loved the different colours that you could see in the rusted metal; browns, oranges, reds, greens etc. This is definitely a material I would like to use in my work, as it would allude to the old machines in the mills and the idea of time gone by. Also, I think rusty surfaces have a very strong aesthetic quality.

Ralph Gratton's screenprint, 'These are the fences- this is the grass', was also very clever, as he had collected a mass of images of grass and fences and had adjusted the tones of the photographs, so that they were reduced to just black and white. The simple reduction of the images made for quite a bold and powerful design.

However the image that really stood out for me was Bill Brandt's, 'Back Lane, Dean Clough'. The photograph shows the iconic Halifax mill in the background, with the factory itself situated on the right, with three parallel rail lines infront of the building and three children playing in the street. In my opinion, this has to be one of the best works I have seen that has tackled the issue of portraying industrial Britain. The image successfully depicts the mill's omnipresence, whilst the children on the right of the image, remind the viewer of the worker and his living conditions.

Bill Brandt, 'Back Lane, Dean Clough' c.1960.