You’ve seen documentaries about tap water bursting into flames and read all about the lives it ruins in the news, but fracking isn’t a process you often get to see IRL.
If you find yourself in Northwest England this summer you can come pretty close, though, by checking out Fracking Futures, a new installation at the Fact Gallery in Liverpool.
Created by artistic engineer duo HeHe (pronounced “hey-hey!”) the piece is a full-scale indoor recreation of a hydraulic fracturing site, simulated down to the booming noises, tremors, and flames. Intended to evoke visceral reactions from viewers, Fracking Futures isn’t necessarily meant to sway the public opinion one way or the other. What’s undeniably ugly, unethical and devastating for some is a pretty summer day at the circus for others: “What struck is a how beautiful it is and how musical it is,” said Mike Stubbs, the director of FACT. “It felt more like a fairground ride.”
Poisoned drinking water and stillborn calves, wheeeeee!
(Image via The Guardian)
