METAHORROR 25
at The Good Rice, 98 Robert Street, London NW1 3QP
 
25 – 26 January 2025
Preview: Saturday 25th January 4 – 6.30pm
Open: Sunday 26th January 1 – 5pm

 
With: Kristaps Ancāns & Marc Hulson / Kristers Krūms, Laura Aizporiete & Spāre Vītola / This Cruel Temple (Hannah Absalom, Em Doodles, Meej Douglas & Hollie Palmer)
 
‘METAHORROR’ is an evolving constellation of artworks, events and exhibitions. Each element is interrelated, an accumulative exploration of metanarrative potentialities through experimentation with the conventions of genre fiction. By extending these approaches to contemporary art practice, the project aims at fostering new narrative modes in experimental moving image, performance and mixed media installation.
 
The contributions in this edition play with relationships between the conventions of ‘found’ or discarded material in art practice and the ‘found footage’ genre of horror fiction.
 
‘Pigeons all time favourite grid that makes living worth Life’ is an audiovisual installation by Kristers Krūms, Laura Aizporiete & Spāre Vītola. The film reimagines the concept of found footage by deconstructing the concept of surveillance, developing a narrative where the cameras and their unsettling sounds become characters themselves.
 
'Cardboard Box' is a new video work by the artist collective This Cruel Temple. The script was first introduced to the group by Doodles in 2022; made up of nonsensical notes he collected from an unknown figure years prior, the text forms an unintentional, absurd narrative and is performed in the format of a soap opera.
 
The kinetic sculptural assemblage ‘Pinokio Apparatus’ gestures toward the uncanny animation of everyday objects in surrealist film: Kristaps Ancāns & Marc Hulson use recycled furniture, handmade wooden effigies and video loops to invoke the ambivalent dynamic between artificial life and ideas of the human in speculative fiction.
 
Supported by Research at Central Saint Martins, UAL and by the Art Academy of Latvia.
 
Part of Camp Fire at the Good Rice. 
 
(image: still from ‘Cardboard Box’ 2025 by This Cruel Temple)