“Death to bourgeois art! Long live revolutionary art!” - Naum Gabo, 1922

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In the current atmosphere of flux and impermanence, fraught with cultural/political upheaval that begs radical structural change, we borrowed historical constructivist ideas used to analyse society within a period of social tension. We re-articulated constructivist fears toward the impact of industrial technology on our human condition to look at our place within the rapidly evolving digital world. 

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Constructivists sought to refine ideas such as movement, music and colour into their most absolute and ‘pure’ form as a means of escaping an increasingly alienating and hostile socio-political climate. This pure form represents ‘inner essence’ or ‘inner sound’, which Kandinsky proposed could derive ‘the entire resources of a whole realm of art’.

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As Manchester redefines itself in post-industrial times, so we re-explored the safety found in abstraction and rhythm. 

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We welcomed work from all disciplines, and embrace interpretations on this theme of dissent. 

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