Skip to content

Liz Rideal

  • Works
    • 2015-present
    • 2010-15
    • 2005-10
    • 2000-05
    • pre-2000
    • Films
    • Installation archive
  • Splicing Time
    • Introduction
    • Maps
  • Photobooth Archive
    • Introduction
    • History
    • Works
  • Texts
    • Catalogues
    • Authored texts
    • Press and Interviews
  • About
    • Contact
  • Introduction
  • Maps
  • Images
  • Information
Via Appia Antica, near Itri Roman Ghosts

Cevara I Water-coloured prints
These images of places in Lazio are printed onto Hahnemuhle William Turner 310gsm, A2 size paper
and individually hand-coloured.

IMG_7226 Trace/Aura
Trace/Aura (2016 - )



The trace is the appearance of nearness, however far removed the thing that left it behind may be. The aura is the appearance of a distance, however close the thing that calls it forth. In the trace, we gain possession of the thing; in the aura, it takes possession of us.


Walter Benjamin



The aim with these works is to create more traces and ‘call forth’ auras, to look for human traces, and how these are evoked and recorded in different ways that change over time. To suggest roving spirits by capturing their fleeting presence as translucent wraiths.

Monterano 3 Terme di Diocleziano
Terme di Diocleziano (2017)



Terme di Diocleziano was on view at the UCL Art Museum from January to June 2017



Through its implied narrative, this silk triptych exposes the different properties of real and sculpted cloth. The juxtaposition of the individual images creates a visual syncopation that is in tune with the action of the cloth caught in motion. While the stone speaks through the permanently carved folds so the transparent fabric reveals an instantaneous ballet. Caught in variable lighting the sequence of three poses, are in turn translucent or visible, the central panel serendipitously darker, reinforcing its full frontal image as a natural anchor.



Download further information


Liz Rideal UCL blog


Marble and Silk by Alexander Massouras