Finding interesting ways of presenting video-art is never easy. Lisson Gallery's summer exhibition, 'Performance/Audience/Mirror', aims to step away from the 'uncomfortable chairs in a dark screening room' concept by reaching outside the walls of the London gallery through a programme of live, online screenings designed to provoke world-wide debate. This virtual element 'not only allows global access to the exhibition but also highlights the democratic nature of film while calling into question issues facing artists who work in this discipline', explains curator Emma Gifford-Mead.
The show's title is drawn from Dan Graham’s 1977 performance of the same name, at De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam. Contrasting the web screenings, the exhibition also makes use of an intensely intimate, gallery-bound viewing installation, in the form of Graham's 2001 work, Greek Meander Pavilion, Open Shōji Screen Version, where the 'audience' third of the exhibition is held. The pavilion shows a range of films from the 1960s to the present day on a screen encased between two-way mirrors and Japanese-inspired shōji panels. Films can be viewed from inside or outside of the pavilion, along with any gallery-goers who might be exploring inside – so audience members become an integral part of the viewing experience, as opposed to those who might be watching at home on their laptops.
The latter two sections, 'performance' and 'mirror' are more traditional in layout, but they feature some of the exhibition's real gems. These include the UK debut of a darkly comic claymation, Worship (2016), by Swedish duo Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, and the rarely seen SPEAK. by British conceptualist John Latham – a psychedelic, ten-minute snapshot of the 1960s.
The show contributes to London's recent love-affair with technological, performative art (think of Whitechapel Gallery's 'Techtonic Superhighway' or 'Performing for the Camera' at Tate Modern), but also follows an increasing number of exhibitions that include a virtual element, like Bruno Ceschel's app-based photography interactions, and The Supermarket's online gallery space. The result is a winning mix of personal, intimate performances and web-friendly progression.
Graham's pavilion creates an intimate sculptural environment to explore the significance of architecture and space in film, while allowing the audience to more actively engage with the works on view. It is here that the 'audience' section of the show is based. Pictured: installation view of Greek Meander Pavilion, Open Shōji Screen Version, by Dan Graham, 2001
Pictured: a still from Performer/Audience/Mirror
The latter two sections, 'performance' and 'mirror' are more traditional in layout, with darkened screening rooms favoured over two-way mirrors and pavilions. Pictured: installation view of Vexation Island, by Rodney Graham, 1997
One of the exhibition's real gems is the UK debut of a darkly comic claymation, Worship (2016), by Swedish duo Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg
Installation view of The Hunt, Christian Jankowski's 1992 performance video piece.
Installation view of How to Appear Invisible, by Allora & Calzadilla, 2008
The result of the show's keen curation is winning mix of intensely personal performances in a web-friendly setting. Pictured: installation view of Telematch shelter, by Wael Shawky, 2008
INFORMATION
'Performer/Audience/Mirror' is on view until 27 August. For more information, visit the Lisson Gallery website
ADDRESS
Lisson Gallery
52 Bell Street
London, NW1 5DA
-
Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for ValentinoThis afternoon in Paris (29 Janaury 2025), the Italian designer hit new heights with an eclectic, era-traversing couture collection for Valentino
-
Inside Bell Labs, the modernist vision behind Severance's minimalist settingWe explore the history of Bell Labs - now known as Bell Works - the modernist Eero Saarinen-designed facility in New Jersey, which inspired the dystopian minimalist setting of 'Severance'
-
Toronto’s DesignTO 2025 highlights – design and art to see across the cityAt DesignTO, the largest festival of its kind in Canada, determined artists and designers gather in Toronto in full embrace of chilly weather. Our on-the-ground correspondent reports on its standout moments
-
‘You have to face death to feel alive’: Dark fairytales come to life in London exhibitionDaniel Malarkey, the curator of ‘Last Night I Dreamt of Manderley’ at London’s Alison Jacques gallery, celebrates the fantastical
-
Steve McQueen presents a portrait of protest in BritainTurner Contemporary’s groundbreaking exhibition Resistance reframes the history of protest, reminding us of photography’s political potential
-
When galleries become protest sites – a new exhibition explores the art of disruptionIn a new exhibition at London's Auto Italia, Alex Margo Arden explores the recent spate of art attacks and the 'tricky' discourse they provoke
-
'It's a metaphor for life': rising star and 'Queer' poster artist Jake Grewal on his new London exhibitionBritish artist Jake Grewal speaks to Simon Chilvers about 'Under the Same Sky' as it opens at Studio Voltaire in London
-
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: Tate Modern’s cultural shapeshifting takes the art prizeWe sing the praises of Tate Modern for celebrating the artists that are drawn to other worlds – watch our video, where Wallpaper’s Hannah Silver gives the backstory
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
