Material: The Object Project/ Moving Objects

Site Material Object- Lin Holland and Jane Poulton.

The aim of the project was to build a dialogue between artists and residents wherein they collectively explored how object become meaningful in the lives of their owners and concurrently, whether contemporary art objects might have a role in domestic spaces.

Central to the project was the understanding that, in order for this dialogue to be mutually meaningful, the artists would employ their usual methods of working within the critical discourses for contemporary art.

The project began with Holland & Poulton visiting each household where participants shared with them significant objects, revealing how and why it had accrued its meaning. In the intimate setting of the home as the space for these conversations encouraged trusting relationships to be built from the beginning. This produced a distinctive aspect to the project and led to its deeper social impact upon all those involved.

In response to these conversations and treasured objects, the artist made a new artwork for each participant that responded to the domestic contexts and visual environment of the object, its history and lineage, and to the wider family and social relations associated with it.

Moving Objects:

Moving Objects was born out of Holland & Poulton’s independent project, Of Substance and Essence. Simultaneously, over a set period of time, they selected and photographed objects within their own homes that seemed imbued with, or had accrued, significance beyond their material form. The combined collection illustrated the capacity of objects to become emotionally charged signifiers of memory, absence, joy, hope...

In Moving Objects they widened the scope of the thesis, continuing to explore the meaning of objects to their owners, this time within the context of Liverpool as a port city – a point of arrival and departure for those seeking work, refuge, recreation or simply a better life.

From 23-29 July 2018, during a week-long residency in Tate Liverpool Tate Exchange, they set up a temporary photographic studio in which people were invited to share information about a significant object that had accompanied them on their journey to the city.¹ They were also asked to identify an artwork from Constellations - Tate’s display of works from its permanent collection – which in some way connected with their own object, their journey to Liverpool or their personal history.² In some cases the links were clear, in others the association was less immediately evident.

Over the course of the week more than 150 people from 32 countries took part in Moving Objects. Though not everyone wished to appear on the website, the majority of those who did are here.