A Quick Tour of Beastly Machines

On bank holiday Monday the weather looked reliably changeable as is typical for the English spring time. After spending the Sunday tidying up our garden, we decided to go to Welbeck Garden Centre to pick up a few plants and to see the Beastly Machines at the Harley Gallery. Harley Gallery is an indoor art gallery and completely free to enter. It has amassed a bit of a reputation with us recently, the last exhibition about letters was lots of fun and we were quite enthusiastic about what lay in store. We weren’t to be disappointed as Beastly Machines has to be quite possibly one of the best contemporary art exhibitions I’ve ever been to anywhere. Here’s a quick tour of some of the exhibits. The Life Cycle of a Mosquito Canoodling Canoeing Gnus This humorous piece comes to life when a button is pressed and the canoe lifts on the left to roll the Gnu down to other letting the two canoodle. In the Dog House Positioned next to the nicely titled Fido Dogskiovski (which ‘barks’ when you push a lever), In the Dog House not only allows to bring the dog out of his kennel but on the press of a button you can wag his tail and make his eyes flash. Having a Whale of a Time So all in all, my family loved this exhibition. My two children thought it was brilliant and really did love it. Although at times my youngest daughter found the animals slightly unsettling, it never lasted long and I don’t think it was too much a bad thing. As well as offering a completely unique engaging experience, I ended up thinking about humans’ relationships with animals and their pets. Do we really want animals and pets just to do as they’re told? Do we want total control over our environment above other species? Beastly Machines is at the Harley Gallery until 12 June. Definitely make a trip to this exhibition, it is absolutely superb.