Artist Talk: Michael Hanna, 'Crossing the Park'

Crossing the Park is a new project in which Michael Hanna is proactively converting from an Everton Football Club supporter to become a Liverpool Football Club fan. Everton and Liverpool are famously rival teams, both located in Liverpool, UK.

The title of the work comes from the pejorative phrase applied to players who have played for both teams, as their home grounds are separated by Stanley Park. There are strong negative social pressures against such a change of allegiance. Through undertaking and documenting Hanna’s switch from one team to the other, he seeks to tease out new lines of relation between social, sensory, and psychological experiences. He asks open questions about how our behaviour can be altered, how we make sense of the world, at micro and macro levels. Crossing the Park follows on from Hanna’s recent research into utopian communities and alternative ways of living. It explores themes of loyalty, empathy, fandom, solidarity, and undertaking actions that invite division and negativity.

Hanna’s conversion has been built around a methodology and series of practical steps devised by the artist with psychology professor Rhiannon Turner who specialises in group behaviour.

Crossing the Park is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and by the Elephant Trust.

Michael Hanna’s recent exhibitions and projects include: A Living Colour Index, The MAC, Belfast (2020 - online); Looking Backward, PS2, Belfast (2019); Short Films about Learning, Lismore Castle Arts (2017). His work has been included in many group exhibitions including TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2022); PhotoIreland Festival, Dublin (2022); Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (2022).

This event is a part of the expanded programme accompanying Reflex Blue, an exhibition with Lyndon Barrois Jr., Elisa Giardina Papa and Léann Herlihy. The expanded programme includes artist talks, film screenings, publication and performance. Invited artists are Michael Hanna, Joseph Noonan-Ganley, Alice Rekab x Stephen Rekab.

Image description: Four smiling people stand facing the camera, in front of a forest. They are close together with their arms around each other's shoulders. The person on the far right is wearing a navy blue Belfast Marathon t-shirt and a red Liverpool Football Club scarf. Beside them to the right, the person is wearing a light blue Liverpool Football Club t-shirt. The two individuals to the left are wearing red Liverpool Football Club jerseys.