Not only is Scar Cymbals the first UK solo exhibition by New York-based artist Donna Huanca (b. 1980, Chicago), but it is also the Zabludowicz Collection’s first performance-led commission. Each day during the exhibition, there will be scheduled performances by painted models interacting with site-specific sculptural installations. These works act as Huanca’s response to the exhibition space, a former Methodist chapel. Rather than battle with the surroundings, Huanca has acknowledged the site’s previous incarnation by building a huge, three-storey, translucent glass structure in the main hall. As the painted models perform within it, enacting private rituals and meditations with slow and emphatic gestures, the glass will gradually become more opaque.
