2010

Commissioned by The Bluecoat and 6th Liverpool Biennial. Curated by Sara-Jayne Parsons.

I think of my site-specific works as situation retrievals, created after periods of research and engagement with a particular location. I am interested in unusual coincidences that reveal hidden strains of meaning.

I worked in a similar archaeological fashion in Liverpool, in 2009 and 2010, examining my memories of the city that I had first visited in 1986, on board a Bulgarian cargo ship. At that time I knew the city as the home of The Beatles, an historic trading port and a place where left-wing politicians stood up to the policies of Margaret Thatcher.

The main structure of my installation was a replica of the dressing room of Liverpool Football Club. When I visited Anfield Stadium, I was struck by how humble and austere the space was considering Liverpool’s status as a top Premier League team.

At the Bluecoat dressing room, the YouTube video of a sneezing panda cub played repeatedly on several monitors, a viral video that was viewed by more than 60 million people worldwide. And a larger more dominant screen showed a music video that I made to present the half-forgotten, but still controversial, history of Militant Tendency – a Trotskyist group within the British Labour Party that played a crucial role in the Liverpool City Council’s struggle against the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher between 1983 and 1987.

I interviewed several of the former Militant Tendency councilors, and then painted a series of frescoes inside the cells of the recently-closed Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan, Maine, recounting chapters of Militant’s story.

Materials: Full scale replica of Liverpool Football Club dressing room, benches, massage table, football players’ shirts, music video projection, YouTube video, soft toys, fresco.

Location: The Bluecoat, Liverpool and Somerset County Jail, Skowhegan, Maine.