Art and science achieve an unusually happy marriage in the work of Belgian
artist Panamarenko, on show at London鈥檚 Hayward Gallery.
Panamarenko鈥檚 life-size flying machines, dirigibles, submarines,
electromagnets, cars and spaceships are a delight to look at, imposing their
fantastic presence on the gallery as few works of art are able to do. But they
are also constructed according to the artist鈥檚 idiosyncratic interpretations of
the laws of engineering and science. So for all their poetic appearance, they
are real machines and are intended to work.
Not that they always do so successfully. Of the test flight of an
exceptionally noisy 鈥渞ucksack-type personalised flying machine鈥�, Panamarenko
observes: 鈥淚n a way it was lucky that the thing was producing all that noise,
because noise produces fear. All the people who were with me in the laboratory
got scared and ran away. Pretty soon, because of the pressure of the huge
centrifugal forces on the propeller, the entire thing exploded.鈥�
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Visionary and playful by turns, this exhibition will delight the Heath
Robinson in us all. Until 2 April, Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London.