Metal

State of Perception exhibition by the Soup Collective took place at Metal 4th - 26th February 2011. It opened with poets and musicians performing on the evening including Dogstar Rose,Greedy Jesus and poets Jason Richardson, John Hughes and Garry Kelly Hartley.

The exhibition was an experiment in artist’s exchange. The conceptual starting point for these collaborations was Edge Hill station itself, the World’s oldest passenger railway station and the home of Metal Liverpool. ‘State of Perception’ detailed upon the emotional resonance of journeys taken from the space - the potential romance, secrecy, joy or inspiration of travel.

The Soup Collective is a group of artists who work together at Tate Liverpool. It consists of practicing artists who, alongside their roles at Tate, exhibit nationally and represent many of the city’s leading studios and groups such as: Red Wire, Elevator, and the Cooperative. The group has been established since 2001 and has exhibited regularly during the Liverpool Biennial Independents festival; in 2006, 2008 and 2010. 2011 saw a new interest and direction evolving for the group featuring International collaboration. For this exhibition they formed new collaborations with artists who work in a different discipline to their own in an attempt to break from their established comfort zones.

The group wishes to expand their practices and invite other similar existing or potential groups to join them in future collaborations. The exhibition at Metal, Edge Hill Station was an ambitious start to International collaborative partnerships and began an exploration into future International links in order to share culture and develop International exchange.

For ‘State of Perception’ the group were invited by Metal to consider collaborations with other artists who would pull individual artists practices away from their established comfort zones, challenging them to take on new skills and discover different approaches to the creative process. As well as new partnerships between artists within the collective, the exhibition included invited partners from Austria, California and Norway.

Contributing artists are: Charles Andersen (UK), Sarah Coventry (USA), Claudia Czimek (Austria), Lee Kendall (UK), Tifany Kendall (Canada), Jacqueline F Kerr (UK), Jet Pascua (Norway), Sue Meyerhoff Sharples (UK), Emma Sumner (UK), Wendy Williams (UK) and Claire Weetman (UK).