Idle

The foundation of this residency is rooted in a shared understanding of queer adolescence experienced in small, heteronormative towns — places where patriarchal norms dominate and often suppress identity and self-expression.

As artists, we reflect on how the absence of visible queer role models in our physical surroundings led us to seek connection through the internet and digital spaces. Technology became our portal — both a refuge and a stage — where we could imagine ourselves into belonging.

The works presented in IDLE centre around the screen — a powerful site of both intimacy and distance. It is a space where people gather, yet remain apart; where physical presence is subdued, and digital connection intensifies. The exhibition navigates the liminal space between isolation and togetherness, online presence and bodily absence.

Performance plays a crucial role. The influence of Robert Oros' practice threads through the show, merging with other works to shape a spatial experience defined by sound, presence, and interruption. The architecture becomes both container and participant, reflecting and amplifying the emotional weight of the room. Monitors bleed sound, bodies are surveilled, and the duality of live versus recorded audio creates unease — reshaping perception based on the viewer’s position within the space.

Performers act as obstructions: kneeling, laying across cold concrete floors, standing still with devices in hand. Their gestures suggest disconnection, tension, and discomfort — forming a choreography of constraint. Despite their shared space, they interact only through digital interfaces.

Abi Birkinshaw contributes a series of digital drawings and experimental mono prints depicting Oros’ friends and past lovers. Selected from social media, these figures are unknown to the artist, yet gradually inhabit a kind of intimacy through process. As each print unfolds, so too does a parasocial connection — quietly formed in the act of prolonged attention.

The works are hung with clinical distance — evoking an industrial atmosphere reminiscent of an abattoir. Naked or semi-naked bodies in everyday acts — smoking, lying in bed — confront the viewer. They contradict the sterility of their setting, creating a tension between vulnerability and detachment.

IDLE is not simply an exhibition — it’s a space for witnessing. A holding pattern. A digital echo. A shared reflection on how we survive, connect, and perform queer longing in the shadows of isolation.