Liminal Creative: Sirens

Blurring the lines between performance and participation, Liminal Creative are known for creating spaces where the audience become artists - sometimes without even realising - encouraging playful interaction to create a sense of awe and wonder in the ordinary.  

Their latest installation, Sirens, is an unforgettable spectacle of audio-visual wonder which features the voices of the Amies Freedom Choir; a choir of female survivors of modern slavery, trafficked into the UK from the Caribbean, Africa, eastern Europe or south-east Asia. This piece is a tribute to all those we have failed to protect and a celebration of the voices who have endured and survived.   

For Freedom Festival 2022, our organisation had a clear focus on curating pieces of performance art, installations and exhibitions which shed light on the barriers to freedom, and what that looks like across the world. From modern slavery, unjust incarceration, and financial slavery to human trafficking, both overseas and at home. 

Liminal Creative’s Sirens brings to attention, to the public, the sheer scale of women who have been trafficked into the UK. Spending the first half of Freedom Festival 2022 in Hull’s historic Museum Gardens, Sirens became a geographical companion to the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation – creating discussion and awareness of the reality of slavery; its history and how we find it in the modern age.  

Towards the end of Freedom Festival 2022, Sirens was placed atop the Scale Lane Bridge and became an almost mystical addition to the scenery. Audiences were able to experience Liminal Creative’s Sirens in both grassy gardens and standing above a river. With both landscapes providing completely unique backdrops, Sirens brought an unforgettable piece to audiences across the city. 

This project has been commissioned by Freedom Festival Arts Trust with support from Arts Council England and Wilberforce Institute.