Introduction

Introduction

Touching Distance is a body of work by Glasgow-based artist Graham Lister, which was created between 2020 and 2021. The paintings and texts which make up Touching Distance invite viewers and readers to consider themes of tactility, proximity, distance and the ways in which surfaces or barriers can organise spaces - simultaneously attracting and repelling.

Since 2017, painted ‘barrier works’, featuring repeated motifs of chain links, security fencing forms and woven materials have appeared in solo exhibitions by Lister across the UK and in Germany. Touching Distance looks to further consider such motifs, but such consideration now happens against the backdrop of social distancing and everyday protective meshes and screens.

Solid structures transmit a feeling of containment and perform their function differently than more open chain link fences might do. A fabric weave can curtain off a space or protect an object, but also may possess a more tactile and inviting quality. Loose woven materials allow for temporary separations in space to be created, but also can picked apart to offer glimpses of that which lies beyond.

Throughout the creation of Touching Distance, a range of painted and expanded works were developed. A selection of these are shown in this book alongside installation images from an exhibition held at the Mount Florida Gallery and Studios in April-May 2021.

Within this book are short texts; the first focusing on knots and the second on weaves and ‘looking through’ barriers. These act as reflections on the thematic underpinnings of the practical work and were written during the making processes. Such reflections helped to articulate the rationale for making the visual works, and equally gave rise to new ways to think about that which was being made. Given the time period in which this body of work was created, it is difficult to look at works about proximity and space without thinking about social distancing and physical lockdowns or restriction of movement. Although it is the case that this body of work follows on from a number of years of visual and textual inquiry into ideas of space and surfaces, it has of course been impacted by the events of 2020 and 2021. It is possible to understand the works and ideas of Touching Distance through a new lens – that of the ground level experiences everyone has had throughout the Covid-19 global pandemic. At the end of this book, a new text has been written, which draws upon the lines of thinking emerging from the project.