The ends of the old AEI building are marked with pavillions topped by more statuary by Maurice Lambert. These are not as disturbing as the angels, but very odd. I think they epitomise engineering. Weird creatures with horseheads on long snake-like necks, bat wings, human torsos and lions paws support a strange gimballed mechanism embellished with esoteric symbols. It is impossible to take them seriously today because of the creatures' strong resemblence to Jah Jah Binks.
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Monday, 20 April 2009
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The ends of the old AEI building are marked with pavillions topped by more statuary by Maurice Lambert. These are not as disturbing as the angels, but very odd. I think they epitomise engineering. Weird creatures with horseheads on long snake-like necks, bat wings, human torsos and lions paws support a strange gimballed mechanism embellished with esoteric symbols. It is impossible to take them seriously today because of the creatures' strong resemblence to Jah Jah Binks.
Those "esoteric symbols" are the signs of the Zodiac (you can clearly see "Aquarius"), making the entire thing even stranger. If possible!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. I was wondering if they were but I don't know the signs well enough (and couldn't be bothered to look them up to be honest). AEI was particularly well known for developing aircraft autopilots during the War - could this be a reference to that?
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