»Liminality is pure potency, where anything can happen«
-Victor Turner


STYX Project Space is pleased to announce »Transitions«, the first solo exhibition of British artist Michael Stokes in Germany.


The exhibition title, »Transitions« refers to Stokes' attraction to working with both authentic and fictional narratives. His work often takes the form of performances and installations that explore experiences of reality. The slippage between what is imagined and actual fascinates this artist. Stokes' diverse practice utilizes behaviors and aesthetics pertaining to specific value systems that endorse and determine aspects of reality and fiction, not dissimilar to advertising.

Stokes exploits aspects of culture and pictorial language from the 21st century to set up allegorical and transitional sites for dialogue. He draws his audience into paradox through the use of codes and props. This mechanism is more commonly found in the process of window dressing. His use of fabrication and reality essentially disturbs faith and common logic. The notion of a finished artwork recedes, and a space for questioning opens up, something like poetic terrorism.

Stokes' approach for »Transitions« will be a response to the site of the STYX Project Space in the Friedrichshöhe and the immediate environment of Landsberger Allee. He will arrive in Berlin and entertain a latency period of 8 days leading up to the opening of »Transitions« that will affect the procedures and processes of the art making. Ultimately, by drawing from aspects of actual systems, objects or behaviors local to the site and environment, the work develops a legitimacy of its own.

Unfettered play begins at this point, where elements of cultural and personal identity are no longer bound in a specific configuration, a zone that enables a moment of reverie for both audience and artist.

»Transitions« releases the viewer from a state of passive contemplation, asking instead that they take on the role of interacting participant with a hope that they are able to feel part of a creative social process.


Michael Stokes studied at the Royal College of Art in London (MA Fine Art/Painting, 2006) and at Oxford Brookes, Oxford (BA Fine Art, 2003). His works have been shown in British and international group exhibitions. Stokes is an artist and trainee art psychotherapist and lives and works in London.


Opening Reception: 19 August 2009, 7-10 pm


Duration: until 02 September 2009

Opening hours: Thursday-Sunday, 2-3 pm or by appointment.