Lis Rhodes's Dissonance and Disturbance exhibition at ICA London explores sound, image, and political language

Lis Rhodes's exhibition 'Dissonance and Disturbance' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London presents a complex interplay of fragmented voice and image across multiple works from her long film practice. The installation features works spanning decades, including 'A Cold Draft' (1988) shown alongside 'In the Kettle' (2010) and 'Whitehall' (2011) on two suspended screens, highlighting continuing political injustices from Thatcher's Britain to contemporary London protests. Rhodes investigates the space between language and looking, exposing ideological power relationships in both visual and verbal grammar. Her 16mm film 'Light Reading' (1978) addresses female representation, incorporating the voice of poet Gertrude Stein. Earlier works like 'Dresden Dynamo' (1971) explore sound/image equivalence through abstract shapes that generate sound when projected. The exhibition includes her television works 'Goose and Green' and 'No. 8 Bus' from the 1983 Channel 4 series 'Hang on a Minute'. Rhodes was involved with the London Film-Makers' Co-op in the 1970s and co-founded the women's film distribution organization Circles in 1979. Her expanded cinema work 'Light Music' (1975) will be installed at Tate Modern's Oil Tanks. The ICA exhibition brings together Rhodes's formal experimentation with political conviction, questioning patriarchal language, media reportage, and government power.