This will be Lucy Gunning’s third solo exhibition at Matt’s Gallery. She has worked with video footage to observe aspects of human behaviour, focussing specifically on changes of state achieved through esoteric practice, intoxication, and protest. The videos are situated within an installation comprising a large wall-painting that is both a back-drop and an abstract sign, and temporary structures fabricated from newspaper and cardboard that create other spaces within the gallery.

One video documents a group of people doing a particular Qi Gong exercise which involves shaking over an extended period of time. (Qi Gong is a Chinese form of exercise designed to stimulate the flow of energy through the body). Another video focuses on businessmen re-orientating themselves to the outside world to find their way home after an evening’s drinking. The third film depicts tree-houses built as a protest in a landscape that is under threat. These are temporary structures suspended above the land with rope walkways between them for the purpose of avoiding the bailiffs; whilst, as mechanisms of escape, they suggest fantasies of adventure and unrestrained existence.

Lucy Gunning would like to thank the following:

Martin Ashford (Financial Times), Judith Dean, John Frankland, Matthew Tickle, Nathaniel Mellors, Chaja Lang (Bloomberg), Martyn Ridgewell, John Tindall, Magdalena Wisniowska and Delfina Studio Trust.