Stomach/Waterfront Trail

The stomach is the bodily organ through which we engage with the world: to digest one’s surroundings (intellectually, sensorially, sonically and materially). The stomach, like the port, is a location where the inside and outside meet, where processes of transformation occur and a culture-nature exchange happens. Liverpool, specifically, has been an active agent in the process of modernisation and change, but also had a key role in the foundation of colonialism and is integrally tied into histories of enforced oceanic movement of peoples, enslavement, trade and labour. This trail gives an account of how those histories are integral to our present, the power of the body as archive, and as a form of knowledge.

→ Estimated duration: 2.5 hours

→ All venues are within 5 minutes walk of each other

Locations

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Building

Horror Vacui (2008) by David Zink Yi

In Zink Yi’s work the band rehearsals and music filled with religious rituals are equally positioned as spaces where, much like the independence of the stomach, collective and individual identities can develop outside of oppressive power structures.

Booking is required. Tickets available here.

Tate Liverpool

This venue is now closed.

Borrowed Lady (2016) by Martine Syms

Masterless Voices (2014) by Ines Doujak & John Barker

Reflecting on the history of globalisation and its impact across society and communities, the work of Ines Doujak & John Barker retraces the story of carnival exploring the patterns of extraction, labour and trade. Similarly, Martine Syms explores the body as archive and how the politics of gesture are preserved in our cultural memory.

Booking is required. Tickets available here.

Canning Dock Quayside

Stacked Heads (2020) by Rashid Johnson

Incorporating organic elements selected for their endurance to harsh winds and saline water, the sculpture like the stomach acts as a point at which the external and the internal meet to highlight the continuing endurance of the body.

Public sculpture.

Open Eye Gallery

This venue is now closed.

between a whisper and a cry (2019) by Alberta Whittle

Sugar Routes (2013) by Zineb Sedira

Sedira’s photographs and Whittle’s film both depict a landscape of extraction, where people and products are moved by water. Similar to a stomach, physical bodies and elements of history are brought together, convening and merging.