Newcastle University

Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich have worked together since 1999 their projects including My Island Home for the V&A; Urban Nomads at South London Gallery; Fusion for St Johns Hospital Livingston and Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh; Celestial Radio for COAST with Commissions East; Love Cannon Parade with the Great Unsigned and Whitechapel Gallery.

Their work explores the space between the real landscape and an imagined location. Within this liminal space the duo create objects and situations that lead them and us on transformative experiences inviting us to consider an ‘other’ way of being. The work treads a fine line between naive optimism and political activism. It challenges the audience to engage with their surroundings through a child-like sense of wonder. It coaxes us to ask ‘Why do things have to be this way, can’t the world be better?’ and implores us to believe we can make things more than just better. The idealistic nature of the work is underwritten by a very humane sense of failure tangible in the fabric of the work itself. Mountains made from air and nylon are used as a means of combating border restrictions, a small helium-filled cloud attached to a harness becomes a way to enter the stratosphere, a boat masquerading as a disco ball bobbing on the oceans sets out to make audible the invisible. Each of these works embodies an extraordinary action that has a romantic and heroic appeal. We are aware that the work can only fall short of its ambitious intentions but clearly it is the act of trying that is important. Through this act all possibilities are opened and transformation can take place. This is the strategy Walker and Bromwich employ in their quest for a better world. The use of play and frivolity to encourage reflection is present in Walker and Bromwich’s more recent artistic endeavours.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/connectingprinciple/projects/lovecannon.htm http://www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk/