Friday 1 June 2012

Electricity Poles Create Spark Of Excitement


You might well think: 'he's finally lost it - what's he think he is up to putting up a load of photos of electricity poles?' When I first saw this, I thought the same. It was only when someone explained what they were for that the place came to life.


I was told that it was a training area for electrical engineers. Big pylons, small pylons, different kinds of structures - now it all made sense. Whether they are still used for training, I have no idea.


It is on the edge of Durham City, next to the Kepier Gatehouse. It has improved a nice but not too inspiring piece of countryside and seems to have added to the landscape and not blotted the views of Durham cathedral. the more I see it, the more I like it.


I almost feel it is like a piece of art. It makes you realise how we have been bamboozled by artists who have tried to mimic the industrial landscape and erect structures which put a contemporary twist on an old functional piece of architecture. Call me old fashioned, but the old shipping cranes and things like these old electricity poles are timeless classics and make the new artwork look mediocre, tiny and inferior.

Long may they live unmolested. Long may Mr Kapoor and his colleagues not be able to find Durham.

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