The Modern Institute, Glasgow is showing a new exhibition at its Aird’s Lane space of new work by Turin-born and Glasgow-based sculptural artist Marco Giordano, who considers the tensions between energy, economics, land, language, and technology – seen through the prism of the transition towards renewable energy, and its effect on social relations.

Taking energy infrastructure as an extension of the body, the sculptures use as a starting-point the aluminium, copper, glass fibres and plastic which comprise the often-invisible electronic infrastructure of the underground and undersea cabling that service our everyday lives: these are reconfigured from deconstructed cabling sourced in Glasgow, and blended with organic matter, personal artefacts, videos and text to form enigmatic pieces.

The exhibition’s title alludes to the geometry of this infrastructure and the way we are locked into routines and extractive practices with it: Giordiano visited Scottish wind farms and the the south American mines and shipping-ports: vast complexes, often run by foreign conglomerates, following the pattern of ‘extractivism’ from South America established in the colonial era, continuing into today’s energy transition, away from petro-capitalism, but centres of international political tension and conflict. Giordano renders natural forms such as trees, flowers, nests and figures in these infrastructural materials, underscoring the connection between natural and man-made.