Jenkin van Zyl: Enclosure

An exhibition pairing a newly commissioned film with a large-scale immersive installation in the Lancaster Rooms of the New Wing. It is the work of Jenkin van Zyl, an artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Somerset House Studios and HOME, Manchester. Set in a decaying facility once built for replication, where visitors could temporarily live the lives of others, it follows Mercy, a starlet whose likeness was lent to the programme, as she arrives to terminate her contract and the boundary between original and copy turns porous. The work explores a culture where technological advancement has outpaced our ability to make sense of it, asking what happens when systems built on desire and self-preservation outlast the conditions that created them. The exhibition contains references to and images of blood, death, and psychological distress and is not suitable for visitors aged 12 and under.