Sadie Coles HQ is delighted to present the first solo show in London of British artist Hilary Lloyd since 1999. This exhibition premieres a new piece made in real time using digital video. Charged, composed and economic, the work captures the intense concentration of both the protagonists and the artist. Shot in London over a period of months in the same place and with the same group of people, the film has been edited using the camera itself, on site with no post-production. Made in three parts that are synchronised and screened simultaneously, the film is part of Lloyd’s ongoing investigation into the rigours of controlled video making. The resulting film is claustrophobic, totally in the present moment, moody and rhythmic. Accompanied by a murmuring soundtrack, as always Lloyd chooses to exhibit her work in a way that reveals all of the related technical paraphernalia, rendering it sculptural and essential.
Working principally in the particular medium of video, but also using 8mm film and 35mm slides, Lloyd makes work according to the driving theme of the modern city and its potential as a site of voyeurism and fetishism. To date, Lloyd's work forms a compulsive study of striking and sexually ambiguous occupants from our contemporary urban populace involved in specific rituals of everyday life: construction workers, waiters, roller skaters and clubbers. Lloyd involves the viewer in a distilled process of examination of her subjects, looking at them from different angles, in various lights, in specific and varying crops, as a process of re-contextualizing and appropriating actions or signs for our delectation. Her work often evolves from the relationships she forms with strangers, requiring a certain willingness of her subjects to collaborate, as for example in Princess Julia Slide Projection (1997) in which she followed the renowned club DJ Princess Julia working one night. A sense of theatre pervades Lloyds work, distilled and transposed into the perceptual space of minimalism by highlighting the actions of people or structures on the fringe of the city. Lloyd is as inclined and capable of doing this with a person, an activity, or paint patterns left behind on a studio floor. Yet throughout, Lloyd maintains an air of invitation, preserving the moment of encounter with the city and its inhabitants, making portraits of urban life as complex as Dickens, Pepys or Balzac.
Hilary Lloyd lives and works in London. Major solo shows include: Kunstverein München, München, Germany, 2006; Waiters, Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2003; Kino der Dekonstruktion, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany, 2000; Chisenhale Gallery, London, 1999. Group shows include: Art Sheffield 08. Yes, No & Other Options, Sheffield, UK, 2008; Die Blaue Blume, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria, 2007; Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France, 2007; Pause it, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea, 2002; Intelligence: New British Art, Tate Britain, London, 2000; The British Art Show 5, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland and touring, 2000. In spring 2009 Lloyd will have a solo exhibition at Le Consortium, Dijon, France. This will be accompanied by a long-awaited publication.
For further information please contact the gallery at +44 (0)20 7493 8611 or press@sadiecoles.com