A sculptural intervention around the site of the REP Theatre, Elizabeth
Hudson’s Free Movement sees the audience’s movement disrupted and
constrained. The different elements are arranged in a route which charts
the borders between the theatre’s public and private spaces; marking the
lines between front of house and backstage, or between audience and
performer, it poses questions about the organisation of public space and
who has authority within it.

The design of the sculptural objects themselves is used to critique the
misleading narratives created about the EU. Making reference to coercive
design within public space, their appearance alludes to the spikes,
bollards and railings which are found in streets and city squares; these
are combined with the shapes of historical weaponry and a
politically-loaded item of fruit: the banana.

Taking the tabloid-concocted idea that the shape of bananas sold in
Britain is controlled by the EU, Elizabeth’s piece playfully suggests a
different perspective. That is, while the EU doesn’t have any say over the
shape of bananas in Britain, there are many aspects of our daily lives
that are regulated by unknown officials — irrespective of what nationality
or trade bloc we belong to.

Elizabeth Hudson is a visual artist whose work uses small details to
examine wider social and political situations, combining the serious with
the absurd. She was a founding member of curatorial collective VERBureau.