Liquid Crystal Display

About

Contemporary artworks, historic artefacts and minerals from the Middlesbrough area are combined through this exhibition. The display also looks at extraction, mineral exploitation and sparkling objects from the deep.

Historically associated with mystical healing, gazing and alchemical practices, crystals are prevalent in everyday technology including computers, mobile phones and state-of-the-art medical equipment.

Liquid Crystal Display takes shape around an ambitious new sculptural display device by artist Anna Barham, titled Crystal Fabric Field and which holds the work of artists and scientists. Barham’s structure, based on the fundamental geometric form of naturally growing crystals, operates as a cabinet of curiosities, housing artworks by 26 other artists. The works examine and observe a liquid crystal phenomena and reveal the mystical properties of objects. They link technology and the natural world and explore links between crystal, capital and contemporary culture

Artists include; Waad AlBawardi; Conrad Atkinson; Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway; Ralf Baecker; Anna Barham; Karen David; The Crystal World (Jonathan Kemp, Martin Howse and Ryan Jordan); Ângela Ferreira; Hermann Jünger; Liliane Lijn; Ann Lislegaard; Matterlurgy; Penny McCarthy; Otobong Nkanga; The Otolith Group; Mungo Ponton; Wendy Ramshaw; Eva Rothschild; John Ruskin; Shimabuku; Kiki Smith; Robert Smithson; Suzanne Treister; Lisa Walker and Jennifer West.  A selection of minerals from the Dorman Museum Geological Collection brings a local perspective at the area’s mineral heritage.

Travelling from Sheffield’s Site Gallery, the exhibition has been expanded to include minerals from the Middlesbrough area and works from the Middlesbrough Collection, held at MIMA. Liquid Crystal Display follows several years of research, and is co-curated by MIMA Director Laura Sillars with Angelica Sule from Site Gallery