Air Looms

Louise Manifold works conceptually with film, photography, sculpture and text. Her multidisciplinary practice reflects upon the boundaries of neurosis and myth as a means to explore human disconnection from the lived world in favour of a private real. Fascinated by the power of stories and the creation of myth, Manifold's work explores narratives and scenarios that challenge ideas of the self and the body. The artist touches on ideas of cinematic estrangement and theatricality. This exhibition at The Dock presents new and recent work alongside several collages indicating Manifold's interest in museum artifacts, found ephemera and narratives that blur reality and fiction together.

In spring of 2020, Louise Manifold and the singer Elizabeth Hilliard travelled to Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the museum which houses The Jaquet-Droz automata, three beautifully handmade mechanical animated dolls, and there, made a short film in response to these extraordinary creations. This project, developed with Hilliard, will be presented as a video installation The Escape Wheel, an opera work based on the performance, mechanism, design and action of the dolls.