Artists Heather and Ivan Morison and their studio have established an ambitious collaborative
practice that transcends traditional divisions between art architecture theatre and activism.
Their work is often performance-based and site-specific existing as one-off events social
projects or large-scale installations and buildings in public spaces. In particular they are
known for their architectural structures that relate to ideas of escape play shelter and
refuge the transformation of the modern city and the function of civic communities. Their
central preoccupation has always been how we navigate catastrophe and the violence of change.
More recent works have moved from a wider collective view to how individuals deal with moments
of personal calamity. Frequently working with governments business and community groups the
Morisons see their role as making art that enables others to see the world and themselves
afresh to lift themselves out of the everyday and to transform the places in which they live.
Love Me or Leave Me Alone presents a journey through the past decade of Studio Morison's
practice with an emphasis on their pavilions escape vehicles and public art works. It shows
how the artists engage with materials histories sites and processes as well as other areas
of creativity thought and commerce to directly address the major societal questions of our
time. Texts by curators Claire Doherty and Gavin Wade detailed project descriptions and
contributions by some of the commissioners architects sci-fi writers and others with whom the
Morisons have collaborated are accompanied by the duo's own reflections on each work. Beautiful
and inspiring this stunning and timely volume shows some of the ways that artists can be
active agents of change bringing meaning beauty and purpose to everyday life and creating a
blueprint for happiness.
