Graham
Lister
 

Touching Distance

Touching Distance was a project funded by Creative Scotland which considered barriers, blockages and devices which split space in various ways.

At the core of this body of practice-based research was a desire to better understand how individuals view their position in space and how this view is shaped, transmitted or constructed in differing ways. A solid structural wall gives a message of containment and performs its function differently than a more open chain link fence does. A fabric weave can curtain off a space, and an expanding grille allows for a moveable barrier to be created. Although these barriers are have variation in terms of their aesthetic form and their main function, they have at their core ideas of keeping separate, of space splitting and they exist, to some extent, to divide space.

Touching Distance was a visual exploration of how we keep spaces beyond ‘touching distance’ in various ways. This project was timely in that it came to its conclusion at a time of of distancing and safety measures, of personal barriers, bubbles, screens and the seismic changes to our appreciations of separate spaces which have altered our individual personal everyday lives.
 

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