Hetain Patel: The Jump

9 Feb-22 Mar 2024

Overview

The Jump takes inspiration from Hollywood action superhero films and the domestic setting of Hetain Patel’s grandmother’s home.

We find Hetain Patel dressed in a homemade Spiderman outfit leaping off his grandmother’s living room sofa as his extended family look on.

Shot in slow motion with an orchestral soundtrack taking it into the realms of epic cinema, The Jump simultaneously imitates the production values of big budget action movies, while revealing the artist’s hopes and dreams. In doing so, it creates a space that reflects our collective desire for shared experiences and role models, while also reminding us of his family’s leap of faith when they migrated to the UK in the 1960s.

Our exhibition also includes newly created paintings by Hetain Patel that further expand on themes and ideas raised in the film.

Hetain Patel’s practice explores the subtle and often humorous complexities of life. Identity formation has been central to his concerns since the beginning of his career, more recently this idea has been viewed through the lenses of imitation, language and physical movement. Increasingly Hetain’s work is populated by characters – both real and fictional – in relation to which the artist juxtaposes himself in moments of elision and dissonance.

He has won a number of awards, including the Jarman Award (2019) and the Best International Film, Kino Der Kunst, Munich (2020) and recent projects include ‘Don’t Look at the Finger’, Tate St Ives (UK), ‘Finding Family’, Foundling Museum, London (UK), and Milk, Wellcome Collection, London (UK).