A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge explores Fort Lytton as a paradoxical space—both a site of protection and exclusion, past and present, presence and absence. Haunted by unrealized futures, its casemates hold echoes of past violence, yet obsolescence offers the possibility of transformation. While the fort no longer guards against invasion, it continues to demarcate, to exclude, to tell stories of power. This exhibition invites eight contemporary artists to inhabit these lingering structures, reconsider inherited borders, and explore what emerges in borderlands when boundaries dissolve.

Rigirigi, a word from Ansell’s native tongue of Balawaian, means ‘animal trap’ or ‘at the edge’. It refers to an animal being hunted, at the edge of a cliff, a spear, a pit, or ultimately at the edge of death. Ansell’s work Rigirigi operates as a living, breathing trap, a machine-formed structure activated through live ritual performance. From this, a fractured soundscape emerges from where the collision of organic and industrial forces become palpable.

Curated by Holly Eddington
Exhibition text by Holly Eddington

Exhibition catalogue ︎︎︎
Roomsheet ︎︎︎
Performance Video Documentation ︎︎︎
Poem interpreted as audio ︎︎︎