Nomanslanding

Nomanslanding is a kinetic, performative and participatory artwork exploring ideas around the idea of ‘No Mans Land’.

No Mans Land is the place between two enemies, a gap of fear, an impasse. Nomanslanding is a reimagining of this space as metaphor for the vulnerability of conflict and lament for the loss and devastation of war.

The work is an international collaboration between five artists and three curators from Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and Scotland. Nomanslanding premiered in Darling Harbour Sydney (2015) and travelled to Duisburg Germany (2015) and Glasgow Scotland (2017).

Water and the history of industry and transportation in the first World War link the three sites. Water is the physical and metaphoric driver of the Nomanslanding concept and design. Water becomes the symbolic space between life and death.

A floating white dome within a square charred timber frame is split in two. After the audience has entered, it slowly draws together across the ‘nomansland’ water to unite the two sides in a shared lament performed within the ‘whispering’ acoustic space.