HeHe: When the Future Was about Fracking

About

Exhibition: 22 April – 18 May 2016

Preview & Curator's Talk by Rob La Frenais: Thursday 21 April, 5.30-7.30pm

Closing Event with performance-lecture by HeHe: Wednesday 18 May, 5pm

Centrespace, Visual Research Centre

When the Future Was about Fracking is a sequel, specially designed for Scotland, of the Paris-based artist group HeHe's Fracking Futures, which first took place in north-west England, also a contested site for hydraulic fracking.

The Guardian wrote at the time: 'It is one of the biggest, most polarising issues there is, but artists who have created an indoor fracking installation insist they are not trying to sway opinion either way. "We want to create an emotionally engaging experience. People can then go away and come to their own conclusions," said Heiko Hansen, who with his partner, Helen Evans, has recreated the sounds, tremors and flames you would get from a fracking operation.'

This time, the group re-enact a doomed landscape after extensive fracking, with leaking hissing ghostly wellheads, in the swirling mist of a post-apocalyptic abandoned excavation site, in the middle of a city centre, in Centrespace within DJCAD's Visual Research Centre located on the lower levels of the DCA.HeHe's often mischievous yet accurate miniaturisations of potential and actual global disasters have intrigued audiences worldwide, and this is the first time their work will be seen in Scotland.

As part of When the Future Was about Fracking, there will be a Preview event on Thursday 21 April from 5.30 - 7.30pm with a Curator’s talk by Rob La Frenais at Centrespace. At this talk, La Frenais will expand upon the development of this exhibition and his experience working with artists’ duo HeHe. La Frenais is an independent curator who has worked internationally with established and emerging artists.

There will also be a Closing Event on Wednesday 18 May at 5.00pm with a Performance-Lecture by artists duo HeHe.

When the Future Was about Fracking is curated by Rob La Frenais in collaboration with Cooper Gallery DJCAD and is part of the Energy Ethics project, organised by Mette M. High of St Andrews University. This installation was originally commissioned by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) and Arts Catalyst. Funded by Creative Scotland and the British Academy.

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Centrespace in the Visual Research Centre, DJCAD and is located on the lower floors of Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 Nethergate, Dundee.