‘If you've got nothing to do, do it on stage!’           (Jack Smith)

Since the mid 90s, Hilary Lloyd has been developing a consistent body of work that in ever new constellations examines the (re)presentation of the self in the interplay between image and body, gaze and pose, seeing and being seen. The starting point for her video and slide installations is the metropolitan theatre of everyday life. Lloyd finds the protagonists of her works in the clubs and streets of the urban centres. She places her actors in isolated settings and observes them in long, uncut sequences or endless slide series as they execute a single, repetitive task. In the exhibition space the austerely composed images are conveyed through minimalist spatial arrangements that manifest the representational technologies (monitors, projectors, video recorders, etc.) as sculptural elements of the respective work.

Hilary Lloyd thus creates a double phenomenology of the body that not only inscribes the subjects of representation, but also the viewer him or herself into the self-reflexive relationship between presence and representation:

"The complexity of the experience produced by Hilary Lloyd's video installations arises precisely from the fact that it touches the intersection of 'everyday' and 'minimalist' theatricality. Hilary Lloyd takes theatricality off the street into the perceptual space of minimalism. In the course of this displacement, she isolates the structural features and 'reverberative' qualities of performing. She excludes all personal and biographical aspects of self-projection to bring out the basic spatio-temporal mechanics of theatricality. Yet, as she keeps her performances casual, she preserves the moment of direct address that marks the presentation of the self in everyday life" (J. Verwoert).

Hilary Lloyd (*1964) lives and works in London. Her work has been presented in numerous international exhibitions, amongst others: Venice Biennial (2003), Gwangju Biennial (2002), Steirischer Herbst (2001) and Tate Triennial, London (2000).