An Artist’s edition for this exhibition is now available via our online shop.

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The science fiction writer is supposed to take a trend or phenomenon of the here-and-now, purify and intensify it for dramatic effect, and extend it into the future. If this goes on, this is what will happen. A prediction is made… If you like you can read it, and a lot of other science fiction, as a thought-experiment. […]The purpose of the thought-experiment, as the term was used by Schrodinger and other physicists, is not to predict the future […] but to describe reality, the present world.

Introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) Ursula K. LeGuin

Tests on previsualisation. Tests on dredging. Tests on floaters, is a presentation of new drawings and animated works by Collette Rayner. The exhibition is part of an ongoing body of research by the artist into acts of dredging (bringing something deeply deposited towards a surface) previsualization (creating a visual plan in order to arrange a structure for the future) and floaters (things that appear unexpectedly).

Rayner utilizes labour intensive, hand-drawn stop motion animations consisting of up to 900 drawings, utilising the methodology of animation to allow the construction of fictional narratives in an attempt to approximate a sense of reality. The works move tonally towards soft-core science fiction, in pursuit of a state of weirdness: a disconnection of understanding coupled with stabilizing scenarios – gut bacteria is figured as a form of mind control, the artist attempts to visually preview scenarios in order to do the future-self a ‘solid’ by predicting obstacles and self-fulfilling cycles. Through these works the artist attempts to look through an un-reality to something that is close to the experience of anxiousness about the future.

This exhibition is the fourth in a series of projects at Two Queens across 2018-19 aimed at providing the opportunity for emerging artists to develop ambitious new projects through a supportive curatorial dialogue. The programme is made possible by public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and De Montfort University.

Collette Rayner, lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Dundee, Scotland. Selected recent exhibitions, talks and residencies include:

You’ll soon know, Yellow Brick, Athens (2019); Dubbledruk, Printroom, Rotterdam (2019); Amonia 3, WORM, Rotterdam (2019); Lore-Folk, Attent, Rotterdam (2019); Lounge with WET collective, Schkeuditz, Austria (2018); Tripping Autonomy, curated by Showroom Mama, De Kroon, Rotterdam (2018); Creativity and Curiosity, Zeiss Großplanetarium, for Berlin Science Week, Berlin (2018); Writing Room Residency, Hutt Collective & Nottingham Trent University (2017); The Map Is The Territory with RADIO ANTI, Bloc Projects, Sheffield (2015); Standpoint Futures, Standpoint, Hoxton, London (2015).