Is Wakefield artist and Turner prize winner Martin Creed's latest work on display in Harrogate more than just a load of balls?

A natural provocateur and deep thinker Creed, who was born in Wakefield in 1968 and brought up in Glasgow, is something of a Renaissance man – his creative practice is diverse and wide-ranging. It includes musical composition, painting, sculpture, film, sound, installation, neon and live performance art. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential British artists working today. So, it is a bit of a coup for the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate to have secured a Tate Artist Rooms exhibition featuring signature works by Creed. The show runs until the beginning of July.

“We had decided we would like to take on one of the Artist Rooms exhibitions which are solo shows of work by big name artists drawn from a national touring collection owned by the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland,” says Karen Southworth, curator at the Mercer Gallery. “We had a conversation with them about what we might show and the works by Martin Creed came up. Because we have quite a large gallery space it offered an opportunity to show artworks that were larger scale. The work they haven’t been able to show recently is Creed’s Work No 370 Balls which is made up of hundreds of balls of every kind, no two balls are alike. They basically fill the whole of the floor of the main gallery. It is unlike anything we have ever shown at the Mercer before.”

This vast installation incorporates 900 balls of different scale, weight and texture. A pathway through the balls enables viewers to totally immerse themselves in the artistic experience. “He sets up installations to encourage people to respond to something he has made – he talks often about wanting to communicate and I think it is a lot about connecting,” says Southworth.

“With this particular piece he was looking at the shape of the sphere and trying to find as many different examples as he could find – marbles, pom-poms, beach balls and so on. He has said that it is only by repeating things that we can understand difference. I don’t think there is any way to explain the work. It is open-ended – it is supposed to be joyful and funny; you find your own response to it.”

All three of the Mercer’s exhibition spaces will be taken over by Creed’s artworks which will include one of his signature neon lights Work No 890 Don’t Worry. “It is basically two big neon words and they are set in the corner of a room,” says Southworth. “If you look at it one way, it feels comforting but then you ask yourself ‘why are you trying to reassure me?’. Because the two words are separated by a corner you see ‘don’t’ first and then ‘worry’, so it is not as simple as it looks.”

Also on display is Work No 837, a thought-provoking, uncomfortable piece, a 35mm film showing people walking into a room and vomiting. “It is quite disturbing to watch,” says Southworth. “Creed has spoken about how when you are making art you don’t know what is going to come out. It might be painful but you need it to come out and you feel better afterwards. The film is a very visceral way of explaining how that feels.”

In addition, visitors can see Work No 1340, a large-scale painting of diagonal stripes applied directly onto the gallery wall alongside a series of four artworks of acrylic paint on canvas. “Those paintings are purely based on stripes across the canvas; he sets himself rules,” says Southworth. “He says he likes to have restrictions that take out the randomness of decision-making. They are not necessarily expressive canvases but they are profoundly philosophical. He presents you with commonplace things and everyday objects and he is asking you to encounter these things. He invites you to give the work your attention and find significance in it.”

Southworth says that she is hoping that the exhibition might bring new audiences to the gallery, although she is aware that it might not appeal to everyone. “Even if it’s not your cup of tea, I would urge people to come – it is a rare opportunity to see Creed’s work,” she says. “Some people might be frustrated by it and others will like how powerful and challenging it is. He is phenomenal. He is constantly asking the question ‘what is art?’ and I think that is a valid and important question to pose. You can find meaning in all sorts of different ways.”

Alongside the exhibition Southworth and her team are inviting students from local schools and colleges into the gallery, giving them the opportunity to participate in creative projects. “They will be working with a writer and two visual artists,” she says. “We are asking the young people to make their own pieces in response to the exhibition and to think about ways in which we can engage audiences who might be ambivalent about Creed’s work.”

Creed has often spoken of his work as being an act of communication – in a way it is a conversation that he is inviting the viewer to be a part of. The audience response is part of the end product; in effect, the final piece of the jigsaw. So, while it may be an exhibition that requires a fair amount of thought and effort on the part of the viewer, the rewards are many.

“Creed is deliberately provocative and challenging but by working in this way he also shapes a whole new level of serious thought,” says Southworth. “Some people may be surprised or even affronted, but if you allow yourself to go with it and give the works a bit of breathing space you will start to unpack and discover some of his deeper ideas and deliberate intentions.”

Tate Artist Rooms: Martin Creed is at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate until July 2.

Admission to the exhibition is free. visitharrogate.co.uk/mercernow