Joanna Hogg's film Exhibition explores artists' lives in a modernist London house

Joanna Hogg's 2013 feature film Exhibition portrays two married, childless, mid-career artists, D and H, navigating their creative and personal relationship within a modernist London house. The characters are played by former Slits singer Viv Albertine and artist Liam Gillick, both non-actors, who lived in the house during the shoot, filmed in chronological order to enhance authenticity. The house, designed by architect James Melvin in 1969 for himself and his wife Elsa, was later redesigned by Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton in the mid-1990s, adding pink sliding doors and wooden floors. Hogg chose the location for its warmth and sensuality, seeing it as a sponge to absorb ideas about creativity and relationships, and was inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's depiction of Casa Malaparte and Louise Bourgeois' Femme Maison series. Sound design, created with sound designer Jovan Ajder, emphasizes natural sounds like birdsong and traffic to express inner anxiety and trigger imagination. Hogg's process involved a novella-like document with dialogue, but Albertine and Gillick often interpreted scenes in their own words shortly before filming. The film explores themes of interior versus exterior worlds, using reflections to blur boundaries, and ends with the house occupied by a family with children. Exhibition is available on Blu-ray and DVD, with a trailer accessible online.