Liminal: A Question of Position

Artists Turn Gallery into an Urban Playground

- Gallery transformed into an 'eye' through which to see the city

- London and Cambodia linked through cross-continental collaboration

11 March - 25 April 2009

Liminal graphics © Dan Adams Design 2009

24 February 2009: Liminal: A Question of Position is a new exhibition curated by Iniva and supported by the Department of Applied Social Sciences at London Metropolitan University that will transform Rivington Place, London into a contemporary urban playground.  Examples include a memory game which will challenge even the sharpest minds, time and space defying technologies allowing people in London and Cambodia to simultaneously walk in each others footsteps, and a proximity detecting installation turning the gallery into an ‘eye' through which
to view the city.

For six weeks over 20 artists will come together to investigate what it means to live in a city - the urban hub where culture, society and beliefs collide.  They will use digital media to explore our contemporary urban experience and question the way in which we position ourselves within the city- both physically and culturally.

Highlights include:

Che-Guevara John & Philippe Chollet  Frictions of Distance
A cross-continental collaborative work, links the people of London with the people of PhnomPenh in Cambodia to explore the issues of hybridity and telepresence!  As visitors walk through the two spaces, sensors track their footsteps.  These are then simultaneously projected onto the floor of Rivington Place and the French Cultural Centre in Cambodia - visitors can literally walk in each other's footsteps.

Rob Rainbow & Patrick Rhoden  Total Station
An interactive artwork that both gallery visitors and passers by can enjoy.  Eye-catching images of London's urban landscape are seen through the vast, street-facing window of the gallery.  Proximity detectors will sense movement inside and outside the gallery and change the imagery accordingly.  Total Station will transform Rivington Place into an optical instrument through which we will see the wider city surrounding it.

Alexander Wendt, Elaine Thomazi-Freitas and Luke Hastilow [w_:l b_:l] Wall Ball
A playful interactive wall installation, which explores the themes of identity and position. Visitors are invited to throw a ball against one of the many screens that make up a giant composite face and through a combination of skill and memory - can change each panel to complete the picture. Somewhere in between a rubix cube and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, the dynamics of the game incorporate the quest for cultural identity and position.

Roshini Kempadoo Ghosting
A multimedia artwork exploring the contemporary multicultural experience in both Britain and the Caribbean.  The viewer is invited to interact with a combination of spoken word and animated visuals in order to create a fictional landscape.  Ghosting reflects on the interconnection of the Caribbean's community, its worldwide origins and its roots in slavery, indentureship and migration.

Disinformation and Usurp London Underground
An installation that is inspired by the London Underground  - no Oyster Card necessary!  London Underground uses audio landscape recordings taken from electric rails on rapid transport systems and presents them as electronic music, and as a visible record of the relationship between objects in the urban environment and their electromagnetic ‘signatures.'  The title London Underground refers to both the transport network and to the cultural and social phenomenon.

Olivier Ruellet Ferro Scape
An experimental video and animation that focuses upon urban travel, architecture in motion and displacement.   Depicting a train journey through an industrial landscape and its associated soundtrack, it investigates ideas around the space-time of travel. Ferro Scape revisits the late 19thC medium of moving panoramas and updates them using digital moving-image production tools, CGI and 3D vector graphics.

The INIvators (a group of young people who develop ideas and activities with Iniva) are a working with artists Chris Lane and Larry Achiampong to examine the politics of a contributory digital culture in dialogue with the city, Iniva, the Rivington Place building and Liminal. A digital canvas will be continually created by the INIvators, the public and six students from London Metropolitan University using data feeds from the artworks in the exhibition. They will be working in a Learning Lab on the 1st floor of Rivington Place.

A full programme of special events, talks and workshops will run alongside the exhibition.  For further information please check the Iniva website www.iniva.org.

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Notes to Editors

The Liminal Project would like to thank London Metropolitan University, Mac Consultants, Phnom Penh French Cultural Centre and Vertigo for their support.

Artists and Participants

• Che-Guevara John & Philippe Chollet

• Rob Rainbow & Patrick Rhoden

• Alexander Wendt, Elaine Thomazi-Freitas and Luke Hastilow

• Roshini Kempadoo

• Joe Banks and Poulomi Desai

• Olivier Ruellet

• Chris Lane

• Larry Achiampong

• Students from London Metropolitan University

• INIvators (Iniva's Youth Advisory Board)

Further information on artists and participants is available at www.iniva.org

Events

Thursday evenings, 6.30-8.15pm

All Thursday evening events are taking place in PS2 Barclays Project Space, Rivington Place

Panel Discussions with the Liminal Artists

12 March

On narrative forms, digital cultures and notions of diversity

How do the participating artists in Liminal position themselves? In conversation with Gary Stewart and Helen Sloan from Scan.

19 March

When digital media techniques get into the hands of the public at large in a collaborative format. Chris Lane and Larry Achiampong and the INIvators discuss the collaborative Liminal approach.

Vertigo Talks

The Place of Image

How images relate to place and what they can do – politically, culturally and as a form of opposition.

2 April
Virtual
This talk will discuss the creation of memory through multimedia. Themes to be explored include archives, colonialism, spoken word, visual culture, race, black diaspora, altermodernism, cultural buildings. Contributors: Roshini Kempadoo, Ashwani Sharma and Sara Wajid
 
23 April
Local
This talk will discuss the creation of works relating to the local and, in particular, the local of East London. Themes to be explored include counter culture, alternative histories, architecture, open space, community and cinema. Contributors: Gareth Evans, Iain Sinclair and Anja Kirschner

Performances

26 March
Frozen Music
Frozen Music is an audiovisual performance project that sets out to re-enact the emotions brought about by travel and tell the story of a physical and symbolic journey towards a metropolis. This 'initiatory voyage' is made up of a series of seven aural and visual tableaux improvised by a trio of strings, percussions and video, merging sound art, experimental film and procedural animation to produce a multi-sensory, immersive experience.

16 April
Circuit Blasting with Strange Attractor, Disinformation and Usurp
A lecture demonstrating and illustrating various Disinformation projects that led to and connect with the themes and methods used in the "London Underground" project, followed by Strange Attractor, Disinformation and Usurp performing a live high-voltage electromagnetic noise performance called "Circuit Blasting". Contributors: Strange Attractor, Disinformation and Usurp

Saturday's presentations and workshops, 3.00pm

Curatorial Walkthroughs

14 March
Gary Stewart and Chris Lane lead an informal exhibition tour.

25 April
Larry Achiampong and the INIvators lead an informal exhibition tour.

Workshops

Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11.00am-6.00pm

Step into our World
The Education Space at Iniva is configured to become a site for production and presentation, initiating lively exchanges of ideas, perspectives and media that will
feed into a database facilitated from the space.

Sat 4 and 18 April, 1.00-5.00pm (limited to 9 people)
Inter(me)zzo with blonds (Barbara Lambert & obinna nwosu)
Using basic open source software you will edit and incorporate your audio composition into a one day sound installation on location.  All participants will be
given a copy of their composition.

Tuesday's & Wednesday's, 1.00-5.00pm (limited to 9 people)

"Modding Workshops" with Elaine Thomazi-Freitas & Che-Guevara John

Wallball                March 17 and 18
Frictions of Distance         March 24 and 25
Wallball             April 21 and 22

Take part in learning how to reconfigure the Wallball and Frictions of Distance art works.  The Wallball workshops give participants an opportunity to think about what it means to disrupt the conventions of frame and screen and to learn how to use Max/MSP and Jitter software. The Frictions of Distance workshop will explore themes of spatial and temporal divides and introduce the software Processing.  On the second day you are able to see your results on the actual artworks in the gallery.

All events are free, please book by calling 0207 749 1240 or by email at bookings@rivingtonplace.org

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Listings Information

Exhibition: Liminal: A Question of Position

Dates: 11 March – 25 April 2009

Venue: Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA

Public opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 11am – 6pm

Late Thursdays: 11am – 9pm (Last admission 8.30pm) Saturday: 12noon – 6pm

Sunday, Monday: Closed

Admission: Free

Nearest tubes: Old Street & Liverpool Street

Rivington Place is fully accessible in all public areas

For parking & wheelchair facilities or further information about Rivington Place +44 (0)20 7749 1240, info@rivingtonplace.org, http://www.rivingtonplace.org/

Further information

For high resolution images and further press information please contact:

Kallaway

Katie Jackson        020 7221 7883    katie.jackson@kallaway.co.uk

About Iniva

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) creates exhibitions, publications, multimedia, education and research projects designed to bring the work of artists from culturally-diverse backgrounds to the attention of the widest possible public. (www.iniva.org)

Opened in 2007, Rivington Place is Iniva and Autograph ABP's contemporary visual arts space and the UK's first permanent public space dedicated to culturally-diverse visual arts and photography. The building has been realised with thanks to funding from the Arts Council England Lottery Capital 2 Programme and Barclays, the Rivington Place founding Corporate Partner. Barclays £1.1m contribution is part of a much wider programme of community support, which last year totalled over £52.4 million - one of the most substantial in the UK.

The Rivington Place project also gives thanks to London Development Agency, City Fringe Partnership, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Hackney Council and The City Bridge Trust for their support as well as The Foyle Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation. Thanks also to Brodksy Centre and Clifford Chance for their in-kind support. (www.rivingtonplace.org)

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