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:

Condo: Birds at Tschudi at Hollybush Gardens ★★☆☆☆

Birds

★★☆☆☆

Posing as an archaeology of signs, women, and their entanglement, this show is mere research notes.

Justin Fitzpatrick, Ballotta at Seventeen ★★★★★

Ballotta

★★★★★

The reward for taking part in this experiment of life is ascension to the holy orders. 

Maso Nakahara: Floating Through Time at Pippy Houldsworth ★★★★☆

Floating Through Time

★★★★☆

Biblical floods, the comet’s fall, and the odd tsunami mercilessly toss Nakahara’s protagonists about.

The Otolith Group, I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another at greengrassi ★★☆☆☆

I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another

★★☆☆☆

The exhibition is a private memorial for Etel Adnan accessible only to members of the art world’s inner circle. And that’s a pity.

Nikita Gale, Blur Ballad at Emalin ★★☆☆☆

Blur Ballad

★★☆☆☆

Even though the show brings together a few unusual tricks, they are disjointed and leave little for the eye to linger on.

Cullinan Richards, Retrospective at Alma Pearl ★★★★☆

Retrospective

★★★★☆

Rhis show is the kompromat in an art generation’s archive.

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