Coded Conduct

Unified in its exploration of the orchestration of behaviour, Coded Conduct offers multiple viewpoints of what it means to perform. This cross section of recent experiments in and around performance examines the tension between the visible and the unseen through multiple explorations of the opacity of behaviour. The exhibition will open with a presentation of School of the Seven Bells 3rd of at least three (2013) - Anne Imhof's first performance in the UK. This act of non-verbal communication embodied in movement is presented in dialogue with Lea Cetera's questioning of performance and role-play in a self-referential art historical context, and Edward Thomasson's exploration of non-theatrical performance in the social realm. The exhibition is punctuated by a presentation of James Bridle's ongoing investigation of the invisible operations of the technologies of drone warfare and assassination.

James Bridle is a writer, artist, publisher, and technologist. His work examines the intersections between literature, technology and culture. Recent projects include Dronestagram, the Iraq War Historiography, an encyclopaedia of Wikipedia Changelogs, and the Artangel commission http://shipadrift.com (2012-13). Here Bridle presents an articulation of the 'Disposition Matrix' - an ongoing investigation of the drone warfare decision processes deployed by the Pentagon. Neither a thing, nor a technology, or object, but an active form, Bridle describes the Disposition Matrix as a reorientation of intent into another dimension, a mode of expression and an abstract machine. Invisible, intangible but highly effective it is a performative apparatus - an attitude in its own right. Bridle received an MSc in Computer Science with Cognitive Science from University College London in 2004. Based in London, he lectures frequently and writes a regular column for The Observer.

Lea Cetera works with video, sculpture, and performance to produce temporal installations that examine the space between object and body, public and private, and the virtual and the real. Utilising techniques drawn from theatre, film, and puppetry, her work investigates constructed identities, the fetish object, alienation, fantasy, and role-play. Cetera's site-specific installation Balance Totem for Posturing (2013) exists as a multi-temporal space of representation that playfully disrupts the ontological conventions of sculpture and performance. Cetera received an MFA from Columbia University in 2012 and a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2005. She has exhibited at: Sculpture Center, Long Island City; John Connelly Presents; Guild and Greyshkul Gallery; Poetry Project at St. Marks Church; Anthology Film Archives; and Portugal Arte (2010). A current participant in Sculpture Center's 2012-2013 In Practice programme, she lives and works in New York City. Coded Conduct is the first presentation of Cetera's work in the UK.

Anne Imhof creates performances and sculptures that explore non-verbal communication and internalised movement. Realised for the first time in London, School of the Seven Bells 3rd of at least three (2013) draws on Robert Bresson's seminal film Pickpocket (1959) and extensive research into the art of theft. Accompanied by a live score this precisely choreographed act of embodied knowledge in which batons are silently passed between performers in dialogic exchange explores the possibility of making a secret visible through a language of gesture and sound. For the duration of the exhibition Imhof will present new mixed media sculptural works which function as static extensions of the live work. Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany she received her MFA from Städelschule, Frankfurt in 2012. Imhof was awarded the prestigious Absolventenpreis der Städelschule Portikus in 2012. A solo exhibition of her work will be held at Portikus, Frankfurt in July 2013.

Edward Thomasson works with video, performance, and drawing to investigate performance in non-theatrical, everyday contexts. His narrative-based videos anchored in human experience use the rhetoric of therapy to examine the tacit rules and regulations of social interaction. Recent presentations of his work include: Inside, South London Gallery, London (2012); Just About Managing, Southard Reid, London (2012); and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The A Foundation, Liverpool and ICA, London (2010). In parallel with his solo practice, Thomasson also makes collaborative performances with Lucy Beech. Their work has been presented across a variety of platforms including: Belleville Biennale, Paris (2012); Barbican Theatre (2011); and Modern Art Oxford (2010). Thomasson received his MA from Slade School of Fine Art in 2011. Currently a participant on the LUX Associate Artist Programme (2012-13), he is also the first recipient of the Chisenhale Gallery CREATE Residency (2013-14) and will produce a major new work to be premiered as part of the CREATE summer programme in 2014. Co-founder of Locomotion, a project space in Lower Clapton, Thomasson lives and works in London.