Abigail Lane's work from the early nineties often described an absent presence, the traces that people leave behind and questioned issues of mark making through a series of pieces that included giant wall mounted ink pads, ink pad chairs, wallpaper imprinted with body parts and the seminal Conspiracyfrom 1992. In this, Lane supplied a series of rubber stamps of her own finger prints which players use to implicate her in a crime and it is for her to find an alibi at any given time. The shoes bearing Ann Elliott’s¹ footprints can be worn/used by anyone to implicate her as well. Parallels are therefore drawn between art making and the perpetration of a crime – the gesture or imprint of the artist can be seen as a transgressive act which opens itself to the interpretation and analysis of the viewer.

¹ Ann Elliott was an exhibition curator for the British Council.

Multiplication, The British Council 2001