Invisible-5 in “The City Is A Blazing, Burning Bonfire” Cubitt, London, UK

In his 1974 book The Production of Space sociologist Henri Lefebvre conjures up a volatile image of the city as “a constantly burning, blazing bonfire,” because of “the truly colossal quantities of energy, both physical and human” that it consumes. This “blazing bonfire” that Lefebvre imagines is largely concealed. It could be described as embedded within the devices it powers, flowing through human and material networks, deferred and at a distance, emitting its fumes invisibly into the air. The City is a Burning, Blazing Bonfire looks at how the spaces we inhabit are constructed, connected and divided through the energy that flows through them, that they produce and consume. It focuses on artistic practices and works that visualise and explore the relationships people have with energy and its infrastructure: including electricity flowing through the urban environment, towns built to support power generation, and pollutant emissions in the air we breathe. The works address access to energy and clean air, from the modernising and democratic ideals behind the electric grid, to the privatisation of the air through carbon emissions trading, as well as questioning how to imagine and approach the all-pervasive image of the network. The exhibition also includes Electrical Development Association leaflets (circa 1919 to 1922) promoting electricity to consumers when it was new and strange.

SPOONFED review by Kylie Abplanalp: http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/kylieabplanalp-19240/the-city-is-a-burning-blazing-bonfire-at-cubitt-gallery-6111/

Click here for a look at the catalog booklet for this show.