Nowhereisland

Nowhereisland was a public art project conceived and developed with the artist Alex Hartley. It grew out of Doherty’s curatorial research into durational approaches to public art through which public engagement extends before and after a temporary event or through a cumulative programme of art activity. Nowhereisland comprised multiple components including a large-scale sculptural work of Land Art, events and activities in multiple locations over 8 weeks, an online year-long programme of 52 commissioned responses by academics, politicians, activists and broadcasters and a research resource that contexualised the work within the history of Land Art, geographical research in mobility and migration and contemporary understandings of climate change. By foregrounding the virtual public spaces in which the work unfolded, Doherty enabled an open-ended, accumulative engagement to emerge that extended beyond the actual period and geographical site of the public display of the artwork.Nowhereisland was the South West Artists Taking the Lead project, the Arts Council’s flagship programme for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The project challenged the conventional associations about where and when public art takes place, a high-profile an example of how public art is now a multi-faceted artform experienced in different places both remotely and locally across time periods. An estimated 40,000 witnessed the artwork; 10,953 people actively engaged in educational events; 23,003 people from 135 countries became active participants online and 144.034 people made unique visits to the website over one year