Imogen Stidworthy: Skydde

About this event

30 September - 22 November 2026 Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6pm PV Sunday 27 September, 2-5pm Matt’s Gallery is pleased to announce Skydde, Imogen Stidworthy’s forthcoming solo exhibition, co-commissioned with Chapter, Cardiff. Her newly devised installation is the second part of a two-stage project initiated at Chapter in spring 2026 with In a thread of air. What is at stake in being between ‘I’ and ‘we’? The installation engages with different forms of communication with self and others through a therapeutic group practice, Primary Work, developed by Swedish practitioner Iris Johannson. Her practice is shaped by her autistic perception and lifelong sense of connection with ‘the primary’ dimension of existence, beyond conventional therapeutic or neurotypical frameworks. Stidworthy filmed and participated in Primary Work sessions between 2023-2026. From this she has created an installation in which built structures, sound, video projections and sculptural forms organise the gallery space into distinct but porous zones. A spatialised soundtrack is carried through airborne and embodied sound resonating through the material environment and burnout bronze casts, listening is with the whole body. Signs of communication in words, cries, bodies prone or in motion, hint at what might be happening intangibly in the communication field between people in the group – changes of energy, exchange, connection; psychic movements. As a child Johansson had no sense of inner life or social connection. ‘I am not into feelings, you are into feelings, but I have to rely on my inner sight.’ She recalls moving fluidly between physical and immaterial being, between the ‘ordinary reality’ and the ‘real reality’, where she would play with two friends – boys, who appeared as pieces of silk flowing in the air. Skydde, the title of this exhibition, is a Swedish word and also the name of one of the boys. Accompanying the exhibition are six responses to the installation given by artists Immanuel Adelowo, Saja Altamimi, Louis Caseley, Vicki Hawkins, James Heath, Sonny Nwachukwu and Delson Weekes, developed through Radical Audio Guides, a co-creative project evolved through a series of workshops held at Matt’s Gallery with the artists over 2026. Their responses are voiced through word, non-verbal utterance, gesture, mark-making, dance and music. They are shaped by different ways of being and sense-making and are presented in different forms, embracing the multitude of ways of communicating embodied by the group. Each response is offered as a guide along a unique path into the work. Radical Audio Guides is supported by Wandsworth Borough Council. It is a London Borough of Culture legacy project and was developed in partnership with ActionSpace and BLINK Dance Theatre. With thanks to National Lottery Players. The exhibition is co-commissioned with Chapter, Cardiff and supported by Arts Council England, Freelands Foundation and Liverpool John Moores University.