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Animals Balance Precariously and Greet Each Other Across Voids in Banksy’s New Murals

08 Aug, 2024

This post was originally published on Colossal

Mountain goat near Kew Bridge, Richmond upon Thames. All images © Banksy, shared with permission

In the U.K., thousands of police remain on standby as a series of riots instigated by far-right supporters have escalated during the past week. The unrest that erupted last Tuesday was spurred by a senseless act: the murders of three children in a dance class in Southport, on the west coast of England, also left eight other children and two adults critically injured. Violence broke out in Southport, then spread quickly to other cities, culminating in assaults on police and racially-motivated attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers.

Renowned street artist Banksy (previously) has created a series of small murals around London that many perceive to be directly related to the riots. Completing one each day, the animals emerge as part of a broader practice in which the artist installs one piece daily during a period of time. While the anonymous artist rarely explicitly describes the meaning behind specific works, various interpretations are often implied in relation to current events and social, economic, or political agendas.

Through his characteristic use of metaphor, Banksy perches a goat precariously on a high elevation as rocks crumble at its feet. While it maintains its balance, the creature may represent the fragile state of U.K. society and criticism about scapegoating or blaming particular groups, especially in regard to race, during periods of unrest. Surveillance, a critical theme in Banksy’s work, appears here in the form of a CCTV camera that has been turned away from the street and trained on the goat.

Two additional installations, including a trio of swinging monkeys and a pair of elephants greeting one another across a void, reference the “wilderness” of the moment and the importance of coming together rather than allowing tensions to erupt. Find more on Banksy’s Instagram.

 

a mural of two silhouetted elephants in windows in London, reaching out over the space to greet trunks

Elephants in Chelsea

a mural on the side of a bridge in London of three monkeys swinging across the road

Monkeys on a bridge over Brick Lane near Shoreditch High Street

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Animals Balance Precariously and Greet Each Other Across Voids in Banksy’s New Murals appeared first on Colossal.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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