West Midlands based British-Jamaican multi-disciplinary artist, educator and writer Exodus Crooks has developed a series of exhibitions with the support of Vivid Lab.

Common themes in their practice include the relationship with the self, which often manifests as questions regarding the possibility of self-actualisation, spirituality, domesticity, dispair, passion and longing.

Recent works developed with Vivid Lab support include Epiphany (Temporaire) and We need 2 tlk.

Epiphany (Temporaire) was commissined by Ort Gallery and International Curators Forum (ICF), curated by Orphée Kashala and shown at Ikon Gallery as part of thir 60th anniversary year in 2024. Originally presented at London’s Block 336 in 2023, the exhibition included sculpture, film, text and sculptural installation. A key work was Doing Duties for Miss Dell (2023), an installation comprising a washing line, turf, clothes and a bedsheet, with text inspired by a memory of the artist hanging out laundry for and with their maternal grandmother, speaking to the relationship with the artist’s matriarchal lineage, where chores and domestic duties were prioritised over, or equated with, the duty to love.

We need 2 tlk is a moving image installation made in collaboration with movement artist Chelsea Gordonand is currently on show at The Exchange, Birmingham, as part of AI FUTURES, until November 2nd. Commissioned by Ikon and University of Birmingham, with support from Vivid Lab, this work explores public perceptions of AI, and how technological developments have altered our behaviour when it comes to communicating with others, centring on the haptics and gestures present in everyday phone use and the processing of information from the eye, brain and hands.