Framing Pattern and Symmetry, Unintended Beauty Explores Intricacies of Industrial Spaces

It’s well understood that producing a single book is an arduous task, making it even more impressive that British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper is offering three distinct versions of his newly released work, Unintended Beauty. The monograph is available in three covers⁠—an orange or blue option with architectural and machine focuses and a black one with hanging sausages⁠—created by the design firm, IRONFLAG.

The Copenhagen-based artist has an eye for spotting the sublime complexities inside warehouses, factories, and shipyards of global institutions like Adidas, Boeing, The European Space Agency, and the Swiss research laboratory CERN, where he captured the pattern and symmetry of the industrial spaces. “We create systems, structures and machines that allow us to provide for our lives and answer our questions about the universe. Machines tell the story of our needs and desires, our hopes and follies, our visions for the future,” Wiper said in a statement.

Something I want to do is challenge what people think of as beautiful, because there are a lot of things that you can say are ugly and beautiful at the same time. The title of the book ‘Unintended Beauty’ is meant to be a bit provocative. A lot of beautiful things should have a bit of ugliness to them.

Including a foreward written by theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser and an interview with the artist conducted by Ian Chillag, the 208-page book features 90 full-color images and is printed on Galerie Art Silk paper with a cover of Italian Manifattura del Seveso cotton textile. Unintended Beauty is now available from Hatje Cantz, although each edition has a limited number of copies.

Two exhibitions for the project will open this year, one on February 26 at RIBA, London and another on April 2 at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Bordeaux. Until then, you can keep up with Wiper’s exploration of technical intricacies by following him on Instagram. (via Creative Boom)