Output details

The Russian Linesman: Frontiers Boarders and Thresholds.

Curation of a Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition and Catalogue

A Hayward Gallery, London, touring exhibition curated by Wallinger and a 143-page book.

The Russian Linesman takes its title from an infamous sporting moment when the linesman awarded the decisive goal to England in the 1966 World Cup Final between England and Germany. His controversial ruling exemplifies a central concept in Wallinger’s curation of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery: Disputed Boundaries. The exhibition coincided with Wallinger’s winning the competition to construct a place –defining sculpture at Ebbsfleet in Kent (see output 2); the exhibition was noted as a point of reference in mainstream and sector discussion.

The curation by an artist of Turner Prize winning renown, represents an artists exploration of the frontier’s and border zones through which, and by which we come to be defined.

The book, more than an exhibition catalogue, is an integral part of the project and provides further insights into the curatorial strategy deloyed by Wallinger -navigating art history, politics, sport, literature and popular culture. Wallinger pursues with vigour in his own words, and through selected quotations, poetry and artworks, subjects that preoccupy him in his own art: ambiguities of perception, the threshold between reality and illusion, and those moments that mark a historical shift in consciousness. For the exhibition Wallinger sourced a startlingly diverse range of objects, including antique marbles, Renaissance woodcuts and 17th-century Italian paintings. Wallinger loves moments of ambiguity that question the relationship between illusion and reality, and consequently a number of trompe l'oeil works figure prominently, as well as 20th-century and contemporary works by artists such as Joseph Beuys, Ronald Searle and Tacita Dean, illustrated with 100 plates in the book.