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"What are (...) objects but the things we perceive by sense, and what do we perceive besides our own ideas or sensations?" George Berkeley.

Without spatial relation, there is no space. Without a perceiver, there is no object. Space does not exist independently of the objects that it connects. So in our reality, where people are hiding away from an invisible threat, what happens to the space that we once occupied? Without us perceiving what's left? And what spaces do we occupy now?

Over the last few months, discomfort and uncertainty has taken a centre-stage in my everyday existence. The calamity of the virus, as well as relocating to reading and returning to education, has stripped away any comfort and feelings of security I had before. I have found myself in a liminal space; a transitional period, a waiting area between one point in time and the next. Maybe even the threshold between realities. Liminality is defined as "the psychological process of transitioning across boundaries and borders" (Larson, 2014). I want to ask: within this transition, what mak es the lack of certainty and str ucture so unse ttling?

I decided to recreate this feeling. I began to work with an image that resembles a familiar but liminal space; the skeleton of an empty tube carriage. To me, it seemed, discomfort is a product of altered familiarity. The result, reduced to a simple and rough sketch, felt fitting to the concept of liminality; the incompleteness of it depicting the transitional nature of the creative process as well as the literal transition of a train journey.

"What art is, in reality, is this missing link, not the links which exist. It's not what you see that is art, art is the gap" (Duchamp, cited by Schwarz, 1997).

The image is bare, containing only the necessary detail for it to be a recognisable form. I wanted to deconstruct the drawing further, to address the uncertainty of the 'in-between', so I split it into four parts. I then experimented with it: scanning fabric, gauze, paintings and other materials in a printer and overlaying the picture. I used tracing paper and cartridge paper, layered them and played with scale to form a series of images. Through working with these semi-transparent materials, I came to the idea of printing on sheets of acrylic.

I considered how I wanted the piece to be interacted with and how to manipulate this interaction, and so I decided to incorporate physical space between the prints. The transparency of acrylic, paired with layering images, allowed for this. Depending on the physical position of the viewer the perception of the piece is different, meaning that their role in the art is as important as the art itself. To further the feeling of discomfort, I decided to make the piece physically uncomfortable to engage with; presented at a level that would require the viewer to stoop into an unnatural position in order to see the work. This resulted in a plinth that stands at about 55cm.

A few challenges and crucial decisions came up in the making. I had begun with 6 prints on acrylic, but felt that the final print took away from the whole thing; it was a combination of all 4 sections which undermined the vague and therefore unsettling nature of the final image. Furthermore, I decided to include a print that offered a contrast to the piece, in red. The intention of this was to convey the unsafe and unstable nature of an 'in-between' or liminal space. Anything can happen between realities.

Duchamp's dust breeding, as well as artists such as Amalia Pica and Michael Craig-Martin, were fascinating to look into as I worked with my piece and its intentions. Their approach to questioning physical form propelled my ideas and inspired plans to work further on deconstructing and reconstructing the prints. Perhaps there is a way I can interact with my piece to continue the conversation around perception and experience.

Larson P. (2014) Liminality. In: Leeming D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_387

Schwarz, A. (1997). The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp. New York, NY: Delano Greenidge Editions. 1: 258.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"What are (...) objects but the things we perceive by sense, and what do we perceive besides our own ideas or sensations?" George Berkeley. Without spatial relation, there is no space. Without a perceiver, there is no object. Space does not exist independently of the objects that it connects.