Liminal: the spaces in between | Island Mountain Arts

So much of life is spent in a state of being in between.

I’ve always been fascinated by transitions – transitions in light, mood, space, weather, seasons, life stages.

I work and live in, and between, two deeply interconnected towns: Barkerville and Wells. Both my towns are largely anchored in the business of history, of honouring and maintaining and examining a specific moment in time. Yet, both are in a constant state of upheaval and often exist in an extended state of liminality – of being unsure of, excited for, and uneasy about, what comes next.

Wells is currently in the liminal moment before large, gold centred industry fully moves in; and Barkerville is in a liminal time of transition from a colonial monument to a site that reflects the greater experience of every person and place that was affected by the sudden and dramatic onset of a gold rush in the early 1860s. Both towns now constantly feel the threat and/or promise of change from commercial enterprise, wildfires, floods and societal shifts.

As I move through and between Barkerville and Wells I tend to linger in the liminal spaces. I notice the thresholds, the underbrush, the courtyards, the expanses of land and water and sky, and tiny pockets of nature. I am compelled by the parts that aren’t the focal points, but rather the things and spaces that surround them.

I take comfort in knowing that change is part of life. Even as we who live in the communities of Wells and Barkerville feel unease about our future, as we cling to the familiar, we understand that we exist in a dynamic landscape. We always have. We always will.

For the past 25 years, in both my visual art and theatre practice, I have been creating art that reflects the idea of liminal time and space, of capturing little fleeting moments in the “in betweens” of these places I call home.

Liminal: the spaces in between is a collection of pieces I have been making for the past 25 years. I have included work I made in the early 2000s when I was nearing the end of my first tenure in Barkerville and Wells, as well as more recent pieces I’ve made since I moved back to Wells in 2009, and pieces I made very recently, specifically for this show.