Hopscotch Tango, an interdisciplinary and interactive artwork, was created for Radcliffe Quad during Michaelmas Term by Melissa Pierce Murray, Univ’s Visitor in the Creative Arts.

The work playfully pointed to the interrelations between games and competition, historical contexts and new narratives, sets and structures, boundaries and innovation.

Footsteps and lines in coloured chalk marked the flagstone walkway of Radcliffe Quad. Toward the centre the footsteps lay out the patterns of the dance tango, while at either end the lines mark out the childhood game of hopscotch. Instead of using standard formats, the hopscotch courts draw inspiration from maths and poetry: the court at one end relates to Pascal’s triangle, and at the other, the rhyme scheme of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias”.

Published: 10 March 2020

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