The first artist selected for the CIRCA Works residency and commission opportunity was Gateshead born artist Kate Liston. Following her MA in Painting at Royal College of Art, London, Liston has developed a site responsive practice that combines chance encounters, subjective observations and historical inquiry in equal measure – where sculpture, video, writing, codes, symbols and structures provide a complex vocabulary to map space.

Liston’s residency will took place throughout August 2012, including a period of time working in Beijing with Red Mansion Foundation, London, before returning to the Stephenson Works to complete a period of new work and research. The residency resulted in a one-off open studio exhibition in connection with ‘Seeing in the Dark’. Recent exhibitions by Liston include Exposure 10, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London and Fire Escape in the Sky at The Pigeon Wing, London.