7 September - 21 October 2007

Hybridity, natural history, illusion, modernism and the supernatural are reflected concerns that link the works selected for this exhibition. The four artists attempt to shift historical meanings through physical and conceptual constructs.

Ruth Claxton's work focuses on the deconstruction of existing imagery and the ideas or belief inherent in their original construction. She uses China figurines which are wittily and insolently altered and integrated into complex sculptural installations acting as constructed landscapes.

She trained at Nottingham Trent University and the Royal College of Art (MA Sculpture). Her recent exhibitions include: in 2006, The Collective, Edinburgh and Arquebuse Gallery, Geneva; East International, Norwich, 2003. In 2008 she will have a solo show at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and then in 2009 at Spike Island, Bristol.

Marie-France & Patricia Martin's video projection Du noir dans le vert presents, in an idyllic landscape (Swiss mountains, Flemish light), two characters - woodchoppers, criminals, amateur ornithologists, clones - gesticulating around walnuts trees, gazing at their own reflection on a pond, running away in terror, repeating pointless chores. Engulfed in fear and madness, the two figures pretend to belong to real life but act as if locked in an abstract fairy tale.

During the exhibition the artists will also present a performance based on Du noir dans le vert where they will analyse obsessional behaviour and explore time, past or present, real or imaginary.

Marie-France & Patricia Martin are from Switzerland. Recently they showed at the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Fri-Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg, Switzerland and were part of the Fashion in Film Festival (Ciné Lumière, ICA, Museum of the Moving Image in New-York).

In The Open (Monster Series), Paulette Phillips presents a series of 7 videos that display animals in captivity within constructed landscapes. The animals and landscapes are collaged from disparate elements collected during the artist's travels over the last five years and reflect her interest in natural history and the complex relationship to colonialism. The footage is shot in zoos and landscapes in Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, London, Rotterdam, Paris, Monaco, San Diego and New York.

Her second work, Touche, is an on-going installation that explores the site of an abandoned house, E 1027 built by Eileen Gray in 1929 which sits as a ruin in the South of France. The installation places the conflicting energies, theories and expressions of Le Corbusier and Gray into dynamic relief. Touche will be the first manifestation of an on-going series of works the artist has been working on since 1999.

The artist and the gallery would like to thank Go Modern for the loan of the Bibendum chair.

Paulette Phillips' film installations construct uncanny experiences that amplify our attachment to voyeuristic pleasure, narrating observation through the use of classical film techniques. Recent exhibitions include: Mois de la Photo, Montreal, The Power Plant Toronto; Diaz Contemporary Art, Toronto, ZKM, Germany; Kunsthaus Graz, Austria; Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany; Ludwig Museum, Hungary and Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy.