Winter Shadow is made up of 6000 Queen of the Night tulips, planted in the winter shadow of a tree at Jupiter Artland. When the flowers bloom in Spring, they trace the tree’s shadow from the winter months.

Between 1 December 2008 and 31 January 2009, Peter Liversidge submitted one hundred and thirty four proposals for Jupiter Artland, spanning a hugely ambitious range of projects. The typewritten proposals, given the collective title Jupiter Proposals, form part of Jupiter Artland’s permanent collection and have been published as an artist’s book of the same name.

Three of the proposals – including Winter Shadow – were given material existence and are now part of Jupiter Artland’s permanent collection. The other proposals in the collection are Signpost to Jupiter and Midsummer Snowstorm.

Winter Shadow is ‘proposal 47’ within Liversidge’s Jupiter Proposals:
‘I propose to, during the winter mark out the shadows of a tree at Jupiter Artland. I will plant the shape of the shadow with black Queen of the Night tulips so that in the spring the shadows of winter will still be on the grass.’

The tulips were plotted and planted by moonlight in winter so that they would come out in daylight the following spring. The result is a traced outine of a ghostly tree, a memory of a landscape that disappears when the lushness of summer arrives.

‘Relinquishing control to nature is a good analogy for how an artwork is released into the world – especially with the proposals as it is the imagination that fills the space that is left once the text has been read.’ Peter Liversidge

Biography

Peter Liversidge was born in 1973 in Lincoln, UK. No single category or definition can successfully describe his extraordinarily diverse practice which includes work in drawing, film, performance, painting, photography, installations and multiples. Liversidge’s approach to his work invites collaboration and is subsequently formed by influences beyond his control; his artworks are investigations of coincidence and not limited to the language of a single medium.

The subjects of his work can seem equally diverse – from an enduring obsession with the North Montana Plains (a place he has never visited) to a fascination with logos and luxury goods, and a preponderance for subverting our ideas about ‘Nature’ with his use of taxidermied birds and casts of natural objects in incongruous materials. These elements are united by an underlying streak of dark, absurdist humour, and a gently persistent questioning and curiosity.

His recent solo exhibitions include Proposals for Lancaster Arts, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster, UK (2023); Rural Time, East Quay, Watchet, UK (2023); Either / Or, Kate MacGarry, London (2023); an echo, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2022); Topsy Turvy, Sign Paintings for Belfast, The Mac, Belfast (2020); Sign Paintings for the NHS, Roman Road, E2 (2020); Working title I, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2018); Working title II, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2019); EDIFICE, COMPLEX, VISIONARY, STRUCTURE, Sean Kelly, New York, USA (2018); Proposals for The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum at The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, USA (2017); The Bridge (A Choral Piece for Tate Modern), Tate Modern, London (2016) and Notes on Protesting, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015), alongside participation in many group exhibitions both in the UK and internationally. His work is held in private collections worldwide and public collections including the British Council, Government Art Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, Tate Gallery Archive and the Czech Museum of Fine Art, Prague.