The Haçienda Interior West

Architect Ben Kelly and designers Ben Cox and Bill Holding at Morph have produced two art prints from a detailed digital recreation of the legendary Haçienda club in Manchester... 

The prints are endorsed by Peter Hook, who currently owns The Haçienda name and trademark, and will be launched at the Buy Art Fair in Manchester (24-27 September) and also at the Zoo Art Fair in London (16-19 October).

The pair of prints, which show the east and west views across the dancefloor of the venue, are the first to be officially endorsed by The Haçienda name and were created from a digital model that Morph constructed of the venue in 2007.

"When Ben and Bill from Morph approached me and proposed that they wanted to digitally rebuild The Haçienda, I fully supported the idea," says Kelly. "I had previously seen the incredible work Morph had executed – digitally recreating Unknown Pleasures for Peter Saville – and I felt there was potential to combine views taken from the digital model using advanced software packages, with the more traditional medium of silkscreen printing.

"I imagined an almost painterly end product layered on top of the technological digital rebuild. It's really a hybrid collaboration. Lurid colours on columns supporting a monochromatic container – a ghost in the machine."

The Haçienda was opened in 1982 and financed by Factory Records, New Order and the record label's Tony Wilson. It saw performances from New Order, Joy Division and The Smiths and played an important role in the emerging house music scene. Eventually closing its doors in 1997, the venue was demolished in 2007 and is now a block of flats (named after the club). 

Each of the prints, produced by Coriander Studio, is part of a limited run of 150 and both versions are printed on 410 gsm Somerset Tub paper, measuring 615mm x 765mm.

We're told that they prints will be online at the Paul Stolper Gallery website, here, where there should be further details of how to get your hands on one (no sign of them yet though; presumably they'll be viewable after the official launch on 24 September).

The Haçienda Interior East