Darrell Viner. Semaphore

Darrell Viner’s work for Chisenhale Gallery consists of five enormous wooden rotor blades, arranged down the centre of the gallery. At 120lbs each, the rotation of the blades is controlled by a random sequence, and as such are sometimes spinning and at other times still. The area occupied by the spinning blades is brightly lit, using strong portable industrial lights, while the rest of the gallery is in darkness.

Windmill-like though these structures are, they are made of fearsomely solid timber, violently swinging within an inch of the gallery floor. They have nothing of the elegance and grace of windmills. The work is an emblem of energy, pent up and aggressive dynamos, confined to the pool of light in the centre of the gallery, a boundary which is well respected by the audience.

Darrell Viner, born in 1946, studied at Hornsey College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, where he graduated with an MA in sculpture in 1976.

Darrell Viner. Semaphore