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Open until 24 March 2019, Ghislaine Leung’s solo exhibition, Constitution, at Chisenhale Gallery brings together sound, light, scale and temperature, building on the artist’s ongoing enquiry into withdrawal and dependency. Originally from Stockholm, the London-based artist and writer’s practice is situated within the discourses of moving image and institutional critique, foregrounded by questions of agency, circulation and distribution. Her recent collection of writings entitled Partners was published in 2018, and her forthcoming publication Divided is anticipated this year. Issues such as labour and value are pervasive in her work, much of which is at first glance aesthetically simple, yet fraught with references.


Leung experiments with sound by applying the same method of noise-cancellation that is used in sound-cancelling headphones to eliminate all unwanted external noise in the gallery. The intensity of the installation’s sound varies depending on where the audience is in the space, creating unique and varying user experiences. The audience is just as crucial as the artist, taking on the important role of sharing their energy with the work. The show also includes a series of architectural adjustments made to the gallery space, alongside sculptures and a moving image work, highlighting acts of dependency through the circulation of self-contained and shared energy.


On Wednesday 20 March from 7–9pm, Leung will be at Chisenhale Gallery in conversation with Fatima Hellberg, curator and Artistic Director at Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart. In London, Hellberg has previously curated exhibitions at the ICA and Tate Modern, among other spaces. Leung’s exhibition commences Chisenhale Gallery’s Commissions Programme for 2019, which includes new commissions by artists Mandy El-Sayegh, Ima-Abasi Okon and Sidsel Meineche Hansen. Through her work, Leung contributes to new discourses on institutional critique, exploring issues related to labour and value, themes that recur throughout Chisenhale Gallery’s programme for 2019.


Words by Sara Frazier | Feature image: Ghislaine Leung, CONSTITUTION (2019). Installation view, Chisenhale Gallery, 2019. Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andy Keate.

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