Output details

Liminal

Resulting from my previous sculptural installations, ‘Intervention IV’, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and KADN Kiosk project, with Camden Arts Centre and New Art Gallery Walsall, Tate Britain commissioned a new artwork to explore a relationship with audience. Working in collaboration with artist Abigail Hunt, this continues our investigation into the physical and discursive dimensions of sculpture. This includes the ritual encounter with an artwork, from the contemplation of an object, to an immersive installation, to performance and audience participation. The resulting artwork ‘Liminal’ invites the viewer into a physical, material and social experience of sculpture through touch, interaction and collaboration and is only 'activated' as an artwork through a relationship with its audience.

Located in a range of different gallery spaces around Tate Britain since April 2012, it has been directly encountered by over 24,870 participating audience members, supported by a team of trained technicians. The artwork was also shown at Tate Modern during the opening weekend of the Tanks spaces, for the ‘Inside/Outside Materialising the Social’ symposium, where it was the subject of an ‘In Conversation’ talk with the curator who commissioned it.

(ADD) Programmed events (including widening participation) were developed to explore areas of research interest of movement, the haptic, drawing and participation.

These have also been linked to an exploration of Tate Britain’s permanent collection. The artwork has challenged ideals within Tate and has influenced educational policy and their consideration of an audiences’ experience of a space. This thinking is going forward to inform a published Tate research paper in early 2014. Liminal is the subject of a film by artist Anna Lucas.