Between Ideology and Ruin
Michael Love
September 10th - October 8th, 2016
The exhibition presents an expansive photographic series of Cold War architectural remains in North America and Europe. Photographed over the past decade, the images weave an intricate, layered chronicle that serves as a visual archive, and calls into question these aging structures and their underlying ideological frameworks.
Advancements in warfare, such as the Trinity nuclear test in 1945, motivated international struggles for dominance. The ensuing development of defence networks generated architectural languages that expressed, in forthright and subtle ways, the political, economic, and psychological conditions spurred by the Cold War. Love’s photographs of fallout shelters, military installations, bunkers, and other related sites, record these locations while drawing attention to their present states of use, decay or repurposing. The work considers the historical weight of these structures and, inevitably, their unrealized functions.
Between Ideology and Ruin explores the inner workings of the Cold War conflict, giving us access to locations that were inaccessible or hidden. Through the photographic survey, the work aims to create a visual understanding of the sites and their physical and ontological transformation through time—how structures stand as markers of history and mementos of a conflict that continue to resonate to this day.
Advancements in warfare, such as the Trinity nuclear test in 1945, motivated international struggles for dominance. The ensuing development of defence networks generated architectural languages that expressed, in forthright and subtle ways, the political, economic, and psychological conditions spurred by the Cold War. Love’s photographs of fallout shelters, military installations, bunkers, and other related sites, record these locations while drawing attention to their present states of use, decay or repurposing. The work considers the historical weight of these structures and, inevitably, their unrealized functions.
Between Ideology and Ruin explores the inner workings of the Cold War conflict, giving us access to locations that were inaccessible or hidden. Through the photographic survey, the work aims to create a visual understanding of the sites and their physical and ontological transformation through time—how structures stand as markers of history and mementos of a conflict that continue to resonate to this day.