The eight-metre high pavilion, entitled Arrival Zone, comprises a scaffolding structure supporting a mixture of hand-painted, brightly-coloured and neon plywood shapes, symbols, patterns, ribbons and wind-powered mobiles, all in the duo’s distinctive style. Inside the installation glows as natural sunlight passes through the thousands of metres of neon wrapped ribbon, providing a bright glow during the day and at night a warm soft environment.
Created as a welcoming area in the city’s Volksgarten Park, the brief to the artists was to reflect the Annenviertel district – an area “characterised by the coming and going of people of different origins.” Their response was to create something that would welcome all-comers, calling on personal experience of similar areas of London.
“I was born and bred in Holloway, London, and very proud of being brought up in an integrated society,” says Morag. “Understanding how a sense of belonging can be achieved through our work has been an ongoing project for many years now. The Arrival Zone is a series of open doorways connected together, all different shapes and sizes, drawing on inspiration from our travels and looking at architecture from around the world and the people of Graz.”
“It’s no surprise that one issue dominates discussions this year, also in art, one which preoccupies us more than ever: Old Europe and its relationship with the rest of the world,” adds Veronica Kaup-Hasler, artistic director of Steirischer Herbst.
Morag and Luke involved over 100 people from Graz in a series of workshops to generate the patterns and colours for the installation – creating a visual language for the Arrival Zone and the other markers in the city which include 24 banners, the entrance to the Rotor Gallery and a canopied seating area outside the Orpheum Theatre. “I held a series of pattern workshops with the local people, of all ages and abilities,” she says. “Everybody was very enthusiastic and I had over 200 patterns to work with. I drew up and incorporated many of the patterns into 24 banners that line one of the main streets in Graz.”
Both the people taking part in the workshop and visitors to the installation were invited to question their own ideas of identity: which colours or patterns do we read as Arabic, British, Indian, Russian, Styrian or African – and what happens when that changes? Serendipitous meetings and interactions within the space encourage people to challenge their own assumptions and stereotypes.
If you want to see Morag’s work closer to home, she is currently putting the finishing touches to the Design Museum’s permanent collection, which opens to the public tomorrow (24 November 2016)!
