Liminality - An Exhibition of Paintings by Richard Joshua

The understanding of liminality has multiple contexts, ranging from the social and cultural to the spatial. The root word limen “is derived from the Latin word for ‘threshold,’ and literally means ‘being on a threshold”. It is the in-between stage where “the realm of conscious and unconscious speculation and questioning exists. Where tradition and ideas are intermingled, taken apart and reassembled – where memory, values, and intentions collide.

This sense of liminality is represented by historical houses located in a small town called McGregor, in the Western Cape. McGregor is a place steeped in history - history in its own right, as well as part of the history of our country.

Through my paintings I seek to re-establish the houses as both a physical presence and as a metaphor. The historical houses with their small windows convey a sense of discontinuity, “a shutting in and a shutting out.” Where the outside and the inside do not meet.

With layering and mark-making I am blurring the perception of the occupied space, becoming both one thing and at the same time another. An in between space, a space of ambiguity, threshold, transition and, an experience of liminality, creating a homogenous space where the house and its surrounds are visually merged - a moment of ambiguity or opportunity.

Discover the exhibition's artwork