I spent a little time savoring the spaces blocked off to general access of pedestrians, especially where building work is being carried out around the campus. I considered this to fit the criteria for Liminal Spaces.
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| New Extension being built to the University |
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Researching others work;
There are a number of current contemporary artists who are referencing liminal spaces in their work. One artist who was part of the YBA (Young British Artists - A group originally of students who were supported by Charles Sattchi the advertising mogul, during the lat 1990s, who included Tracey Emins and Damien Hirst, amongst others), has recently been brought to my attention is Rachel Whiteread CBE (Born 1963). Rachel uses a variety of materials such as the discarded items often disposed of in day to day living ( -This raises the value of the disposed items into a completely new dimension, as part of her art in itself). I chose to look further at Rachel's work through her listing on the Tate website; Reference; http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rachel-whiteread-2319
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| Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Stairs), 2001 |
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| Rachel Whiteread, Bookshelves, 1997 |
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On my journey to work at the University the following day, I was walking through a wooded lane when a rather epiphanal moment struck me.
There had been a heavy frost the evening before, and a horse chestnut tree was just beginning to thaw from it's nightly slumber. The tree was in the process of shedding it's leaves from the summer growth and this process has been accelerated by the ice forming at the synapse to each leaf. Clumps of the palmate leaves were actually falling everywhere, in what I could almost describe as a deluge. I imagined the falling leaves like the tears of grief from the tree, after the loss of the summer sun. ...Winter was with us again.
I chose to spend time later that morning in the studio drawing trees loosing their leaves, the action caught me as a good example of a way to capture the liminal space between the branch twig-lets and the mounds of leaves on the earth. Tracing the concept of where the true liminal space existed, but now on a micro level, I considered the leaf being adjoined to the shoot or twig and what the mechanism was that held it together.
The junction and threshold concept can be taken further in an electrical (electronic) sense too. The electronic component that comes to mind here is the capacitor. (I learned about this passive little component some 35 years ago, whilst undertaking a Certificate of Secondary Education in Electronics). This is essentially, two metal plates, face to face separated by a gap, that can be an air gap, or an insulator such as paper, a ceramic material or other sandwich of materials. In fact, what is called an electrolytic capacitor in particular, can be used as an allegory for a liminal space, particularly for electrons. I choose an electrolytic capacitor in particular as these devices are usually polarised (which means electrons will only behave as anticipated if they are allowed to flow in a specific direction as designed. Reversing the polarity of an electrolytic capacitor can cause it to short-circuit or malfunction). Capacitors exhibit a property of temporarily storing an electrical charge, the larger surface area of the plate and type and surface area of the electrolyte determines how much. The space in between the separated plates together with the electrolyte form a liminal space to electrons. The fact that the electrons are stored up on one side (i.e. in one plate) of the capacitor, then rush across the other side through the liminal space (which then becomes empty again), serves as a great example of the concept we are studying.
The symbol of an electrolytic capacitor is to two parallel lines, separated with space, with one opposing conductor emanating from the centre of each line at the perpendicular... An Electrolytic capacitor is distinguished by on of the plates being boxed. Thus...International Standards Organisation (ISO) Symbol of an Electrolytic Capacitor
Thinking further about the synapse, in it's more usual setting, - for describing the junctions of the brain neurons, I realized that the human brain synapse is the ultimate liminal space. Transitions across them are both electrical and chemical, and the very activity in a collection of synapses is the threshold to our whole imagination, understanding, views, beliefs and all human thought. Without those liminal transitions within the synapses, there would be no sense of liminality nor capability to visualise nor represent the same.
Later rumination on the subject of liminal spaces led me to think of how I used to spend a great deal of time commuting long distances in my past roles. I have already captured a contemporary view of the commuters waiting in a station, and my imagination turned to the new commute I take each day via local public transport. I was particularly thinking about the bus station as a liminal, transitional space, particularly the threshold between walking and being carried by a bus...
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