The Floor is Lava - Private View

Taking place in Meta’s ex-office spaces at Shaftesbury Avenue, The Floor is Lava presents a modular stage, inviting 40 artists to showcase sculptural works that disrupt and subvert the utilitarian architecture of the office environment.

In the words of Timothy Morton, ‘everything emits time’; objects, infrastructures and spaces exist inherently at a human scale, inevitably cascading into redundancy. Positioning 200 discarded office lockers as a performative platform, The Floor is Lava confronts the strange banality of the workplace, challenging the greyness of transient corporate landscapes and creating instead a transformative playground for artworks. Repurposed and elevated, the platform extends the monotonous carpet tiles beneath, turning the floor into a stage that resists the language of function and efficiency.

Through these interventions, the exhibition creates a space for materiality, theatricality, and play.

The Floor is Lava is the third collaborative project of Rachel Mortlock, India Stanbra and Janek Nixon. Following Systems We Have (New Art Projects, 2022 - curated by Hsi-Nong Huang) and Testing Grounds (Filet, 2022), the series tests the boundaries of the exhibition space, exploring shifting encounters between the artwork and audience. Exhibiting as part of the Soho Connections: Artist Takeover at Shaftesbury Avenue, The Floor is Lava will take place alongside two weekends of artist-led events in March.

Exhibiting artists: Ekaterina Luzgina Laura Porter Katie Surridge Kavitha Balasingham JD Rooney Olivia England Mike McShane Ali Glover Lily Bunney Leonie Cameron Abigail Norris Oona Wilkinson Zoë Granger Leo Bant Charlotte Dawson Jadene Imbusch Henry Burns Rachel Mortlock Gabriela Pelczarska Arlene Wandera Sam Sangjani Wills Janek Nixon India Stanbra Simon Prentice Matthew Swift Lydia Porter Hsi-Nong Huang Rory Beard Elena Hoskyns-Abrahall Celeste Mcevoy Chloe Beddow Isobel Atacus Gavin Bell Eleni Papazoglou Gideon Pain Charlie Pritchard Camilla Bliss Eleanor Bedlow Danny Young Tom Coates

Image Credits:

Matthew Swift FLOURISHMENT 2

Mike McShane Phanton Limb