An artist couple, in their 50s, but seem much younger, live in a beautiful modernist house designed by the architect James Melvin in the London borough of Kensington. H (Liam Gillick) does some form of digital installation and is apparently quite successful. D (Viv Albertine) is a performance artist and not as successful as her partner. She tries out masturbation poses on the kitchen stepladder in front of the large window, in effect the house is her stage. In real life Liam Gillick is a painter and conceptual artist whose pieces surprisingly resemble the James Melvin house they live in: smallboxes, flat colourful surfaces or constructs. Viv Albertine, a punk icon, was a founding member of the 'Slits' and 'The Flowers of Romance'. In EXHIBITION, the latest film by British director Joanna Hogg, the two play a couple in crisis looking to sell their home. Why they want to sell is unclear given that both seem terribly attached to the house. Maybe the house is haunted, sometimes strange noises can be heard. EXHIBITION is a comedy for people who now have found some stability but haven’t forgotten how silly they still are. For example sex. H wants to have sex, D is lying limply on her stomach. H tries to turn D over but it doesn’t work. H: "It’s easier if you just move a little bit." If one has sufficiently unwinds, this is at least as comical as H’s outburst when the handyman parks in his private parking spot or breakfast in a room with walls that look like Newman's "Who´s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue", a picture that someone who didn't find EXHIBTION comical or strange would probably attack with acid.

Tom Dorow