Don’t Look at the Finger is a major new moving-image work by artist Hetain Patel, showing in simultaneous solo exhibitions at Manchester Art Gallery and QUAD in Derby.
The film follows a ceremonial ‘fight’ between two protagonists, a man and a woman, in the grand architectural setting of a church. The way the characters communicate is a feat of choreography that combines Kung Fu with signed languages to express a ritualistic coming together.
At both Manchester Art Gallery and QUAD, Don't Look at the Finger is installed alongside Patel's 2015 film The Jump, a double screen installation that shows the artist, suited up as Spider-Man, leaping in slow motion that is so slow it sometimes feels like a moving photograph.
Read more: FVU director Steven Bode on the work of Hetain Patel