First major solo exhibition of Scottish artist Morag Keil opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Institute of Contemporary Arts presents Moarg Kiel's first major solo exhibition (Photo by Tianxing Bai)

The Institute of Contemporary Arts presents Morag Kiel, the first major solo exhibition by the London-based Scottish artist. The exhibition, now open until April 14, 2019, revisits key works from Kiel's career over the past eight years, centering on four major installations that have been reconceived and rebuilt for this show, brought together for the first time, alongside a number of new and previous works.

Keil explores the impact of data-capitalism on contemporary subjectivities while acknowledging how these are affected by the precarity of everyday realities, such as labor and wealth inequality. Keil works in installation, film, paint, and pencil, and often collaborates with other artists. Her work frequently adopts a lo-fi, pared-back aesthetic, incorporating everyday objects and materials with digital innovations that affect domestic life, such as home automation.

Throughout her varied practice, Keil presents aspects of branding strategies from advertising and social media platforms to investigate and expose pervasive and influential techniques. She also uses visual and aural strategies exploited in computer games and commercial environments to manipulate behavior, in ways premised on cliched notions of gender. Conceptually, Keil’s rejection of the hierarchies of value attached to art production is realized in the artist’s refusal to overproduce, while recognizing this as an ever-present imperative.

In bringing together a substantial body of work, this exhibition aims to show how Keil’s practice offers an insightful and eloquent consideration of how our day-to-day existence is increasingly mediated by technology and digital communication. (Tianxing Bai)