Stretch is an interactive installation and sound sculpture made from thousands of strands of fine shirring elastic stretched under tension across a space. Both boundary and invitation, the sculpture can be encountered from within and without, allowing each audience member to find their own way into the work and discover its potential to transform and be transformed. 

Part sculpture, part instrument, Stretch comes alive through interaction. Audiences are invited to explore and inhabit its elastic landscape, making their own multi-sensory journey through the work. Touch and movement create sounds which are captured, processed and amplified, while imagery generated in response is projected back into the sculpture. Movement artists enter at intervals, improvising within an environment that continually stretches, shifts and responds around them.

No two encounters are quite the same. Inclusive and intensely participatory, Stretch creates an ever-evolving conversation between people, movement, sound, image, architecture and space.

Stretch was conceived and designed by Sophia Clist and developed with long-time collaborator Nick Burge. Recent collaborators include dancer Jane Mason, dancer Kim Bormann, electro-acoustic musician Theo Jackson Clist, and musician and sound artist Emma Welton. Previous collaborators include Ragnhild Olsen, Craig Vear, Jonathan Eato, Sarah Cameron and Anouk Llaurens.

Originally commissioned by Crying Out Loud, Stretch continues to evolve through new site-specific iterations and has been presented nationally and internationally at festivals, theatres and public spaces.

Crying Out Loud and Stretch

We began to work with Sophia Clist in 2002, interested in her practice because she was creating new and different participatory and immersive work at a time when there was very little extraordinary work for children and adults to participate in together. This was quickly followed by the commissioning of Stretch, which we produced and co-presented over many years.

Stretch has shown nationally and internationally at festivals, theatres and in public spaces, from West Bromwich Town Hall to Sadler’s Wells, London, from Toronto, Canada to Perth, Australia. Most recently, Stretch was installed across the 9.5 metre nave of Exeter Cathedral, a venue unlike any other it has visited. The nature of a cathedral as a place of contemplation was of great interest to the artists and influenced the way in which the public engaged with the sculpture.