"An ordered conglomeration of signs (sometimes taken for wonders), galleries function as frames that contextualise, construct and reconstruct particular meanings". (1)

Reflection upon the nature of art as a cultural construct and its mediation by institutional mechanisms has lead to formulations for a "new museum" - one in which space is understood as both a physical and phenomenological reality. This space recognises that "the meaning of an object continues in the imaginative work of the viewer who brings to it their own agenda, experiences and feelings". (2) To experience Signs of Life as a kind of "open work" is to make an idiosyncratic voyage; an exploration of the relation between art and life in which the transformative power of the museum is engaged through the elusive yet potential space of the imagination.