ERIC MACLENNAN
Making The Invisible Visible
By Eric MacLennan and The Collective Effort
Making The Invisible Visible is an exhibition that shines a light on the small things in life that we take for granted, using everyday objects to reconnect us with friends, nature and our home town.
In June 2026 lead artist Eric MacLennan ran sessions with 7 local community groups in and around South Shields:
Apna Ghar Ethnic Women’s Centre;
Friendship Group at St. Jude’s;
Key Community Bus;
Simonside Youth Initiative Centre;
South Tyneside College;
These Streets Community Company;
WHiST.
Collaborators shared their objects and stories, in a collective effort to make the invisible visible. In this exhibition, you can see the photos and objects and hear or read the hidden stories they contain.
Exhibition at The Word
9th October 2026 - 30th January 2027
These works give an acknowledging nod to Marcel Duchamp’s pioneering ready-mades which wittily asked us to consider what constitutes a work of art. In this case the interest lies in the human stories behind the objects, the invisible that exists in the visible.
The exhibition has been planned to coincide with the celebration of The Word’s tenth anniversary.
This exhibition is a development of Eric MacLennan’s 2015 artwork in visible (L)ink in which 102 people twinned parts of the town with friends across the world.
in Visible (L)ink
Eric MacLennan was commissioned to make a work back in 2015 which would animate the area from the old central library in South Shields to the proposed site of a new library (here!). The artwork was a micro town twinning concept inspired by the town twinning that flourished after the second world war promoting gestures of peace, connection, understanding and friendship.
in visible (L)ink asked local people to twin small areas around the town with a friend or a loved one from another place in the world. The work twinned South Shields with 102 places. There was a twinning ceremony that unveiled a portable plaque to celebrate the towns many connections. You can see a film of that ceremony here.
You can also see slide shows of the small parts of the town that have been twinned as they were in 2015 and as they are now. There is a final slide show of the photos taken in the old Central Library by the original collaborators in 2015. “The 102 Club”
Each time a twinner walks past their object they are reminded of their friend in another place… their invisible link! These invisible connections are now being made visible for the first time with a map that has been specially produced in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of The Word.
