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’Prem Sahib: Side On’ is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, until 15 November. UNPLUCT is on view 12 November

Photography: Mark Blower

Address

Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall
London, SW1Y 5AH

Telephone
44.020 7930 3647

The young British artist Prem Sahib is at once a minimalist (of sorts) with an architectural bent and a keen interrogator of the human heart, particularly its lustier and more intimate beats. Indeed, his interest is in how architecture creates spaces of intimacy, sanctioned and unsanctioned, planned and appropriated, with particular reference to gay London and Berlin; though of course intimacy, snatched and secretive, or in plain sight, is a universal.

His first major institutional exhibition, ’Side On’, takes over the upper and lower galleries of the ICA, creating total spaces, and includes installation, performance, sculpture and works on paper. Performances include UNPLUCT, a collaboration with DJ and artist Jeffrey Hinton and part of Hinton’s ’Pit to Pube’ project (part tribute to untended body hair, part elegy for the 70s and 80s club scene in London and New York).

 

His first major institutional exhibition, ’Side On’, takes over the upper and lower galleries of the ICA. Pictured: detail from Looking for One, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London

His first major institutional exhibition, ’Side On’, takes over the upper and lower galleries of the ICA. Pictured: detail from Looking for One, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London

The show creates total spaces, and includes installation, performance, sculpture and works on paper. Pictured left to right: Taken by Your Equivocal Stance I, 2015; Taken by Your Equivocal Stance II, 2015; Taken by Your Equivocal Stance III, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome

The show creates total spaces, and includes installation, performance, sculpture and works on paper. Pictured left to right: Taken by Your Equivocal Stance I, 2015; Taken by Your Equivocal Stance II, 2015; Taken by Your Equivocal Stance III, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome

Sahib’s interest is in how architecture creates spaces of intimacy, sanctioned and unsanctioned, planned and appropriated, with particular reference to gay London and Berlin. Pictured in foreground: Outer Wear, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London

Sahib’s interest is in how architecture creates spaces of intimacy, sanctioned and unsanctioned, planned and appropriated, with particular reference to gay London and Berlin. Pictured in foreground: Outer Wear, 2015. Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London

BUMP, 2013 (left); detail from Looking for One, 2015 (right). Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London

BUMP, 2013 (left); detail from Looking for One, 2015 (right). Courtesy the artist and Southard Reid London