Peter Liversidge: The Thrill Of It All

Liversidge has built up a reputation on the back of his ‘proposals’ for artworks and this latest exhibition is a series written for, and realised at, the Ingleby. His suggestions to the gallery’s owners range from the tangible (proposing to paint the gallery entrance bright orange) to the impractical (installing a volcano within the space) and the humorous (inviting the Reid brothers to walk 500 miles, and then 500 more).

Several selected proposals are hosted in physical form over two floors, with the complete typewritten set (created between 14 November and 20 December) framed and running at an even height around the perimeter. There’s enough here to keep a visitor occupied for some time, but it’s also possible to dip in and out on separate occasions. Performance-based proposals will also take place during the exhibition run, including the highly anticipated ‘Gin Performance’, during which the artist will give a motivational speech to Scottish business leaders.

While the realised pieces and artefacts are outnumbered by the ideas surrounding them, much of the joy of the exhibition is to be found in reading the texts – while carefully stepping around the many coloured die arranged on the floor. The upstairs space seems sparse by comparison, but is carefully thought out, and easily relates to the corresponding text below. The overall impression is of a wild imagination and the possibility that anything could happen, the artist keeping viewers on their toes and open to suggestion.