The Art of the In-Between / Liminal Spaces

Empty malls, silent corridors, abandoned childhood haunts – these are the liminal spaces that haunt our collective imagination, evoking a curious mix of longing and unease. This article explores the architectural roots and artistic power of these in-between realms, from the canvases of painters to the unsettling frames of cult films and the viral phenomenon of “dreamcore”.

The curious sensation that emerges when you come across images of deserted locations, leaving you without a clear answer. This is the essence of a liminal space. It’s something we’ve likely all experienced, whether in a fleeting moment of reality or captured in the frames of art and film. Simple as they appear – an empty room, an abandoned lot – these locations can trigger a surprising mix of emotions, becoming a powerful and often unspoken resource for artistic expression.

What is it like to look at a specific place that was part of our childhood, such as McDonald’s from the 90s and early 2000s, or an empty mall? Feelings of nostalgia might be the first to surface, a reminder of how much time has passed. It is quite hard to reduce it to one particular definition, but most people describe liminal spaces as capable of evoking: uncertainty, confusion, anxiety, nostalgia, and sometimes a sense of self-discovery.

From an architectural perspective, a liminal space could be defined as a transitional area that connects different spaces or states of being, often characterized by ambiguity, uncertainty, and a shared sense of direction or movement. In general, they tend to be corridors, libraries, backrooms, elevators, or simply empty rooms. These in-between spaces can feel uncertain and lack clear markers. Why do they look familiar, even when we haven’t been there? Probably because we frequently encounter these spaces in our daily lives, across different building types and cultural contexts. This constant exposure to similar spatial layouts and design elements creates an inherent sense of familiarity.

Twin Peaks, 1990 directed by David Lynch

David Lynch’s particular cinematography, characterized by mystery, a mix of beauty and terror, and the blurring of lines between reality and fantasy, uses liminal spaces to create a sense of tension and confusion through fleeting shots of a doorway or a threshold, inviting the viewer to question their understanding of the world portrayed on screen. In Art, paintings like those of artist Ferdinanda Florence, which are influenced by this concept and feature no people or objects, just rooms and emptiness, may appear effortless but can be quite dramatic. She defines it as “slippery, unfixed, and locationally ambiguous—such as the threshold between inside and outside.”

The unsettling allure of liminal spaces has found a prominent voice within the “dreamcore” theme on social media, where algorithms have led users to explore and somehow enjoy this type of content and the feelings it evokes. Its roots trace back to online forums like 4chan, where the ‘backrooms’ mythos first emerged, sparking a fascination with these transitional, often abandoned, locations. This fascination has since permeated other social media platforms, where images of deserted childhood haunts, accompanied by nostalgic music, create a palpable sense of unease.

A significant portion of these images depict locations from the 80s and 90s, eras defined by maximalism and vibrant colors in interior design and architecture, creating a stark contrast with the eerie emptiness that now pervades them. Liminal spaces offer a simple yet artistic resource in architecture that has ended up influencing other different arts and can be applied to complement a certain message. It has been one of those topics on the internet that can seem insignificant but brings such mystery to delve into.