Zyad Menk

Scar Tissue

★★☆☆☆

On until 7 August 2026

Piling up tonnes of junk in the corner of a gallery is an old trick. This showroom is tiny, its corners everywhere, and Menk’s collection of electronic circuit boards, wires, and half-broken peripherals thus looks almost as impressive here as Christoph Büchel’s equivalent once did in a warehouse. 

But volume alone is trivial, each item in this mess offering less to the eye than the last. Menk knows this: he used most of this matter before. Not always to such “rubbish” effect, either: e-waste was a game of research for him only three years ago.

For an artist so young, Menk’s electronics are very old news in the age of the chip implant and cloud computing. This could be intriguing but, in this rendering, isn’t. The form-factor turn on history’s scrapheap offers no interpretative powers.


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

Megan Rooney, Echoes & Hours at Kettle’s Yard ★★☆☆☆

Megan Rooney

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★★☆☆☆

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Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei-Garcia: Grown at William Hine ★★★★☆

Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei-Garcia

Grown: The Altering of Innocence and Experience

★★★★☆

These fables are pure pleasure to narrate, yet their references overwhelm.

Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart at Hayward Gallery ★★☆☆☆

Yin Xiuzhen

Heart to Heart

★★☆☆☆

Xiuzhen remediates commodities, turning second-hand fabrics into ‘immersive’ experiences.

Sosa Joseph, Pennungal at David Zwirner ★★★★★

Sosa Joseph

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★★★★★

The night, finally, recognises despair and witnesses infanticide.”

Hannah Tilson, Soft Cut at Cedric Bardawil ★★☆☆☆

Hannah Tilson

Soft Cut

★★☆☆☆

Tilson’s styled self-portraits are an affectation that will take many years of practice to pay off.

David Muenzer, Teen at Final Hot Desert ★★★☆☆

David Muenzer

Teen

★★★☆☆

Muenzer’s messy show bedroom actually is someone’s messy bedroom most nights of the week.

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