Free installation by Clive Davis that uses photographs and red squares to explore space, time, identity and signs and symbols.
Looking for the Signs, a new installation by artist Clive Davis, opens at Arts Centre Washington on 12 November and runs through to 16 January. It's a long run, so there's plenty of time to fit it in over the winter.
The work pulls together themes Davis has been developing for several years: awareness of space, ourselves, time, identity, signs and symbols, and how the world is presented to us. He builds the installation around photographs and red squares, a device he says began with an event he devised in 2022 for four artists from Canada, Norway and the UK.
One of the things that sets this apart from a standard gallery show is how it's laid out. Rather than keeping everything in one room, Davis incorporates different parts of the centre, and he's doing it on purpose: he wants visitors to experience a sense of place, playfulness and questioning rather than remaining passive viewers. It's less about standing still and looking at a wall and more about moving through the building and noticing how the work sits within it.
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It's also a bit of a test of the idea of art in places where you wouldn't normally expect it. By spreading the installation across the centre, Davis is asking you to engage with the space itself as part of the experience.
As for the venue, Arts Centre Washington runs a year-round programme of exhibitions alongside theatre, music, comedy, dance and film, and it houses artists' studios, a recording studio and rehearsal rooms. Looking for the Signs is free to visit, and it stays open from 12 November 2026 until 16 January 2027 at Biddick Lane, Fatfield, Washington NE38 8AB.
