The solo exhibition Cult explores the forces of group psychology through the use of video and sculptural elements to investigate the phenomenon of the outsider encountering the group. The installation features a low platform in the middle of the darkened gallery space with a gathering of nine plinths dispersed around the platform. Each plinth possesses a 'head' - a video monitor showing the staring face of a black and white cat.

The viewer first experiences the group from a distance, the monitor screens providing the only source of light. Moving onto the platform and amongst the screens, visitors are made aware that each cat is moving, but barely perceptibly. From any position, only two or three of the cats' faces are visible. Each cat goes through a cycle of opening and closing their eyes, of waking and sleeping and each cycle remains dogmatically out of sync with its neighbours.

Marion Coutts talks of this work as a "watch, or a vigil". Tense and uneasy, the installation is replete with flickering gazes and anxious eye-contact. Cult's physical elements create a taut compound of animal, machine, statue and totem. The work acknowledges that the 'cult object' is simultaneously dedicated to its devotees - and yet totally divorced from them.

The piece is available on CD-ROM.

General information;

Chisenhale Gallery is a charitable organisation whose mission is to enable and promote innovation and experimentation in contemporary visual arts and art education. The gallery provides a key platform for international artists at an early stage in their careers in a spectacular ex-industrial uninterrupted space measuring 2,500 square feet. It organises five solo exhibitions each year from British and international artists who are supported to make new work in response to our unique space. Chisenhale has worked with a roster of artists including Tim Noble, Sue Webster, Bob and Roberta Smith, Graham Gussin, Jane and Louise Wilson, Rachel Whiteread, Cornelia Parker, Rose Finn-Kelcey. Funding: Chisenhale is revenue funded by Arts Council England, The project received approximately £11,000. Reviews: Artforum, James Hall, Jan 2003, no 5, p 149; Modern Painters, Sally O'Reilly, vol 15, no 4, 2002, pp 138-139; TRACE, Interview with Carmen Zita, issue 1, Sept 2002, p 48-49; The Guardian, Elisabeth Mahoney, 5 Sept 2002, p 22; Cult, East End Life, 2-8 Sept 2002; Time Out, Sally O'Reilly, 11 Sept 2002; Cat's Eyes, What's On in London, Morgan Falconer, 4 Sept 2002; Studio Developments, a-n magazine, October 2002; Art Review, Hannah Schuckburgh, Sept 2002.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/787