The Art Assassins collaborated with artist Laila Majid to explore how technology enables bodies to change towards alien and unfamiliar forms.
Inspired by surrealist photography and low budget science-fiction movies, they worked with scanners, photocopiers and phone cameras to document bodies, props and costumes. Later, these images were transformed back into 3D sculptural forms through plaster and cardboard.
The project led to the creation of a series of filmed dioramas. In these atmospheric scenes, their sculptures and images were staged like props in an abandoned film set.
These works and other material from the project were displayed in a pop-up exhibition in the South London Gallery Fire Station.
Laila Majid’s work was also featured in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 on display at the South London Gallery.
BIOGRAPHY
Laila Majid (b. 1996) explores the ways in which images, objects, and surfaces are imbued with desire, considering how our material and visual cultures leave traces on and within our bodies. Through this, she interrogates the boundaries of the corporeal and the desire to shape-shift beyond them.
She has recently shown work as part of group shows Nude, at Fotografiska in Stockholm (2021) and THEN OUTSIDE FROM NOW INSIDE (2018) at Chaos Magic Space in Nottingham. This year, she was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, in which she exhibited work at Firstsite, Colchester and the South London Gallery. She graduated from her MA at the Slade School of Fine Art earlier this year, and is currently studying towards an MSt in Film Aesthetics at the University of Oxford.