Gravel Plant 01

Year: 2010
Limited edition: 5 + 2 artist’s proofs
Dimensions: 140 x 100 x 190 cm
Materials: oak wood, steel, glass, black mdf, linoleum
Photography: Raw Color

Gravel Plant 01  is the first installation of the ongoing Industrial Archaeology series by Studio Mieke Meijer. The installations are inspired by the photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher.

The black and white images of the photographers couple are best known for their ‘typologies’- grids of black-and-white photographs of variant examples of a single type of industrial structure.

Since 1959, Bernd and Hilla Becher have been tracing the man-made testimonies to the industrial era in Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States and document both the production plants and the houses in these industrial areas in photographs. Industrial buildings are a remarkable building type. The architectural shape is completely functionality based. In the 20th century, most of these buildings were taken down because they had served their purpose and were no longer a tenable economic proposition. That’s why the photographs of Bernd & Hilla Becher remain the only visual record of these ‘anonymous’ structures.

Studio Mieke Meijer restores these disused industrial shapes into functional installations which enable studying, collecting and storing. Each piece is hand made to her own interpretation with outstanding attention to industrial details and skilled craftsmanship. The titles of the installations refer to their original function.

Gravel Plant 01 was originally designed as part of an exhibition by collective Dutch Invertuals and first presented during the Salone del Mobile 2010 in Milan (IT).