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WHAT IS A LIMINAL OBJECT? JAMES MARSHALL talks about his work on the theme - liminality: the moment of becoming, the space between worlds.
If subliminal means that which is below the threshold of ordinary consciousness and perception, then the liminal is the point of emergence, the threshold itself, the turning point between one realm and another. The liminal state is characterised by ambiguity, openness and indeterminacy. Liminality is a period of transition, during which usual boundaries of thought, self-understanding and behaviour shift, opening the way to something new.
In my work with what I call liminal objects I ask the question: When does an ordinary object move into other dimensions? This question gives rise to more questions: When does an object become recognisable?
What is the shape of that object just before that moment of recognition? What is it at that moment? Is it even then what it is about to become or is it something different? At the threshold, is form pure energy, a radiance of colour and light, a wave, a glimmer, simply a shimmer of becoming?
The liminal object is itself a question: 'What am I?' Or as my Zen teacher used to say, 'What was my face before my parents were born?'
The liminal object opens the doors of perception, carries the viewer beyond ordinary perception and definition, to that space between, where everything is what it is, and nothing is what it seems, where colour, energy, light and form merge into one. That is -where I do my -work.'
I read these words and shift my attention to the objects that James Marshall has created; I take a breath and let go of concept, expectation, the need to know. I am drawn into the shapes of light and shadow: colour, light, radiance, glimmer, shadow, earth, air, fire, water, energy, form, dance of shape and stillness of the moment.
What am I seeing? Do I need to know? I watch my mind seek to identify what I see, and again I let go of the idea, and the attempt to identify. A door opens, into another realm, a dimension of colour and light, a freedom where nothing is fixed and shapes appear and re-appear, where anything could be anything if...