Alexis Kyle Mitchell

The Goal of Our Health

★★☆☆☆

On until 2 August 2025

Kyle Mithell’s image archive would make Adam Curtis’ heart sing. Contextless, charged views of people and systems, toned with that pale hue of ‘archive’ give the impression that something profound is extracted from the reels, tapes, and screen-grabs the artists set to Luke Fowler’s ominous soundtrack. 

But her hour-long meditation on health, care, and disability – wrapped in musings on the nature of film – feels more like a PhD-by-practice submission than BBC iPlayer fodder, let alone the contents of an art exhibition. The video’s plot is so dense that it takes six pages of writing to explain what connects Zoom movement workshops and the fact that urine, apparently, makes for a decent film developer solution.

There is some tenderness to the edit, but it hides under poorly articulated complaints and a cliché warning against eugenics. When even Curtis has stopped narrating his ‘documentaries’, some stories are wasted breath.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Esteban Jefferson, May 25th, 2020 at Goldsmiths CCA ★★★☆☆

Esteban Jefferson

May 25th, 2020

★★★☆☆

This exhibition is a warning to would-be propagandists: trust art at your peril.

Kevin Brisco Jr, But I Hear There Are New Suns at Union Pacific ★★☆☆☆

Kevin Brisco Jr

But I Hear There Are New Suns

★★☆☆☆

I didn’t get to see this show. Perhaps for the best.

Mohammed Z. Rahman, A Flame is a Petal at Phillida Reid ★★★☆☆

Mohammed Z. Rahman

A Flame is a Petal

★★★☆☆

Rahman’s zine hand makes this make-believe explicit but not plausible.

Gina Fischli, Love Love Love at Soft Opening ★★★★☆

Gina Fischli

Love Love Love

★★★★☆

What good it is to be best in show when the competition is lame, crooked, or outright fake?

Anastasia Pavlou, Reader at Hot Wheels ★★☆☆☆

Anastasia Pavlou

Reader, Part 2; The Reader Reads Words in Sentences

★★☆☆☆

In this game of aesthetic cognition, the idea which survives is of the artist thinking.

Official. Unofficial. Belarus in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Belarus Free Theatre

Official. Unofficial.

★★☆☆☆

Art matters neither to the dictator nor his opponents.

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