"Liminality (Neither Here Nor There)" - art for Burning Man 2011

aleXander hirka (photography and digital montage)  

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40″x40″ – on display at Center Camp, Burning Man 2011
Rites of Passage, Aug 25 – Sept 9, Black Rock City, Nevada

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The Ritual of Crossing Over.
On the Verge, at the Brink, on the Cusp.
Putting it On_The_Line.
On the threshold, At the gate, Amidst a revolving door.
On the border.
An Entrance from which to look at the Not-Yet-Future – A Portal from which to view the Fading Past.

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Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning “a threshold”) is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the “threshold” of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a “liminal state”) and in anthropological theories of ritual.

As developed by Arnold van Gennep (and later Victor Turner), the term is used to “refer to in-between situations and conditions that are characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes”.  Although initially developed as a means to analyze the middle stage in ritual passages, it is “now considered by some to be a master concept in the social and political sciences writ large”. In this sense, it is very useful when studying “events or situations that involve the dissolution of order, but which are also formative of institutions and structures.”
It is particularly useful as a tool for analyzing both contemporary events and problems, and for analyzing and comparing various historical periods.