Heather and Ivan Morrison, I lost her near Fantasy Island. Life will not be the same…

At 6pm, passers-by began to take the flowers and by 7pm the installation was entirely dispersed across Bristol, as people walked home carrying armfuls of flowers. This was Heather and Ivan Morison’s I lost her near Fantasy Island. Life will not be the same… commissioned for the British Art Show 6 in Bristol. Unannounced and unexplained, the work operated as part-monument and part-performance intervention into public space which captured the public’s imagination.

Director’s note
The duration of this work and the way in which the ‘sculpture’ changed over the period of the day led to initial discussions later that year when I undertook the curatorial residency at Massey University, New Zealand. Inspired by the Morisons’ audacious act and subsequent conversations with artists and curators across New Zealand, One Day Sculpture was born along with Situations’ subsequent interest in time as well as place as a medium in public art.

About the artists
The Morisons’ artworks convey the simple pleasures and passions of their endeavours and of those they meet, from amateur floristry to beekeeping. The formal outcomes of their investigations include postcards sent to a growing mailing list, LED displays of text messages, slide shows, LP recordings of conversations, radio broadcasts, one-off events, intriguing temporary structures and science-fiction novels written whilst in transit. Many of these blend factual recall with fictionalisation, merging information into a shifting narrative that builds on the mythology of Heather and Ivan Morison’s lives and the lives of the people they encounter.