Client: 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire Council / British Land

Overview

20-21 Visual Arts Centre commissioned and presented Our Colour Reflection, an ambitious new work by British artist Liz West in May – June 2016. The installation transformed the interior of the former St John’s Church building now housing 20-21 Visual Arts Centre gallery by using hundreds of mirrors to reflect the gallery lighting into the roof space, projecting colour up into the historic interior. Viewers saw themselves in the mirrored surfaces as they explore the space – creating a dialogue between viewer, artwork and architecture. This work has since toured to British Land's Broadgate Estate in London.

Goals

"Taking time to research and consider the history of the building and the weight of connotations it holds as a former place of worship, West has thought about stained glass and the importance of light within the space. Viewers will each have their own perspectives and their own experiences tempered by movement through the space and through time. By going unplugged here, West emphasises that while artificial light can be manipulated it can only, at best, replicate the dynamism, shifting mood and changes in quality embodied in natural light." - Francis Pearce, (editor and writer for publications inc. Lighting – Illumination in Architecture, Blueprint, Apollo and Vogue).


Liz West creates installations that use light and colour to transform spaces, and people’s experience of them. She aims to provoke a heightened sensory awareness in the viewer, tapping into our deeply entrenched relationship with colour, and exploring how it can move viewers, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

Process

Our Colour Reflection has been made possible by funding from The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Additional Information

The 20-21 Visual Arts Centre is a North Lincolnshire Council cultural services venue and is supported by funding from Arts Council England as part of their National Portfolio of venue. Set in the neo-gothic former St John’s Church building just outside Scunthorpe town centre, the building hosts a busy café and shop and hosts a varied programme of contemporary art, design and craft exhibitions. Since opening in 2001 the gallery has received over 500,000 visitors. The building has recently undergone a £600,000 refurbishment.