Quilla Constance 'Activating Intersections' 9:10:26 - 16:01:27 - New Art Exchange

Activating Intersections marks the most ambitious presentation to date by the British-Jamaican interdisciplinary artist Quilla Constance aka QC. Merging anarcho-punk feminism, carnivalesque play, and absurdist humour, QC deploys a fiercely subversive practice across socially engaged performance, large-scale oil painting, costume, and video. By strategically infiltrating institutional galleries, public streets, and mainstream television—most notably her critically acclaimed intervention on the BAFTA-winning Sky Max series Rob & Romesh Vs (Art)—her work disrupts the hegemonic structures that restrict and marginalise Global Ethnic Majority, female, LGBTQ+, and working-class identities.

At the core of this exhibition is a newly commissioned series of monumental oil paintings. These works radically reclaim and contest the colonial interiors of British stately homes. This painterly intervention operates in direct dialogue with Constance’s landmark 2019 Tate Modern open-studio workshops. That project engaged over 1,000 diverse participants in dismantling systemic cultural stereotypes through the activation of eclectic costumes and props.

Activating Intersections extends this profound social architecture through QC’s costume installation, The Grenadiers: New Regiment. Featuring garments worn during the historic Tate Modern performances alongside newly commissioned wearable sculptures, this installation bridges historical critique with active civic rebellion. On January 16th  (the last day of the show)  these costumes will be dynamically activated by members of the public across the main gallery at New Art Exchange and the streets of Nottingham—transforming the city into a live site of cultural negotiation.

By conflating learned social categories and institutional zones, Constance generates urgent solidarity within a highly polarised contemporary British society. This exhibition stands as a defining milestone in her career, offering a transformative, empowering vision that challenges the boundaries of contemporary art, social practice, and institutional critique.

FREE ENTRY: https://www.newexhibitions.com/e/69003