Inside Outside

Installed for Thresholds exhibition, Liverpool this work explores inclusion and exclusion zones in institutionalized space, this hand spun wool thread creates a minimalist intervention similar to the Jewish concept of the eruv. This is sited within the gallery to create a new border, threshold area. The work uses ideas of territory and borders together with the notion of place and behaviour. Its aim is to use the concept of the eruv to create a new territory in the gallery/exhibition. The territory is created by an eruv placed high on the gallery space walls. Made from sheep’s wool, which has been both collected, donated and hand spun into a single thread, it is almost invisible unless sought out. This is in keeping with the original intention of an eruv, which is placed to mark out territories in areas of Jewish population to allow the orthodox inhabitants to relax the strict laws that are applied to the Sabbath. Its importance lies in its function that relates to inclusion, exclusion and that it allows as well as prohibits and its secrecy. It marks a boundary or territory that is full of dichotomies, for example, it relaxes rather than enforces rules. Placing it within the gallery space comments on viewer behaviour within the space, how behaviour changes according to unwritten rules and peer pressure.