Private view: Sunday 8 October 2023, 2-6pm

Exhibition continues: 13 October – 5 November
Friday-Sunday, 12-6pm

A new video and sound installation in Matt's Gallery with roaming performances in the surrounding area.
Performances start in the Gallery at 30 minutes past each hour.

Matt’s Gallery is excited to announce Precursing, a new installation and performance work by Nina Davies.

Precursing will be the first solo exhibition by Davies in a UK public art gallery. The show will include two layers: a large-scale exhibition consisting of sculpture alongside a video and sound installation and an ambitious continuous dance performance. Performances will take place throughout the day, 12-5:30pm inside the gallery and in outdoor areas immediately surrounding the building.

Within a system where technological growth is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, it is important to consider how the use of new technologies for storytelling affects its use in industries and fields where accuracy of information is essential. Today, AI technologies are being used within finance, law, transport, and insurance industries to predict possible futures, while also being used on social media platforms to detect ghosts. While one of these cognitive technologies needs reliable data to perform its function, the other does not.

Focussing on predictive frameworks which are trained in fictional spaces like video games, Precursing considers recent non-player character dance trends seen on TikTok as a subconscious plea to escape a present which is determined by predictive technologies. In Davies’ video a fictional incident involving a self-driving car, trained to predict the movement of pedestrians, is discussed. Through two conversations between four characters issues of ghosts, ritual and the future of the justice system are raised.

Outside the gallery visitors will encounter live characters ‘Precursing’ – a fictional traditional dance central to the discussions in the video. The project draws on the artist’s background in dance and research into choreography beyond performance. Working with a group of dancers, the artist will take cues from online dance trends emerging from appropriated movements taken from the Grand Theft Auto video game series. The choreography departs from pre-programmed simulated human movements where characters will intervene in the everyday experience of locations near the gallery, blending with the newly regenerated aesthetic of Nine Elms which in its design already implies a computer simulation.

This show exhibits the expanding borders of the Uncanny Valley, moving beyond the digital realm and into physical world, where reality eerily replicates the programmed.

Supported through sales of Matthew Krishanu's generously donated print edition, Four Poster Bed.

With thanks to the Nina Davies Exhibition Circle for their generous support.