PROGRAMME ARCHIVE: 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

On Thursday 18 September 2008, The Royal Standard re-opened its doors to the public with two major exhibitions to coincide with the Liverpool Biennial 2008.

The inaugural exhibition in the Royal Standard's new home drew on the organisation's relocation to the periphery of the city centre. Set against Liverpool's rapidly changing urban and cultural landscape, NAVIGATOR reflected a process of re-mapping and re-routing through familiar and unfamiliar territories.

Drawing, photography, sculpture, collage, video and intervention featured in an exhibition that looked beyond the gallery walls, to engage with space and context as The Royal Standard negotiated a new position within the city.

Seven UK-based artists were invited to develop new work for NAVIGATOR, extending the themes and introducing new perspectives. In Peter Ainsworth's Gabe standing on a pile of rubble, Bramley Moore Dock (A5036), 2008, a lone figure stood atop a mound of building debris looking onto a vista of Liverpool, the skyline dominated by new builds that exemplified the changes in the city's recent history. Tim Machin's subtle intervention into the gallery space played with ideas of landscape and its use in everyday production, while Townley and Bradby's Mobile Sports Foundation, 2008, invited a participatory exploration of the routines and rituals of the city's public spaces.