The Teachers

A new work by Turner-Prize winning artist Elizabeth Price. This will be the artist's first exhibition of new work in London since 2012.

The Teachers is a two-channel projection work of high-definition video, approximately 10 minutes in duration. The narrative is a satirical, futurological story, set in a culture analogous to our own. It concerns a contagion of muteness that affects teachers in further and higher education, and soon spreads to include professionals in related cultural sectors. As a proxy for speech, those affected make and wear elaborate monochrome costumes and perform absurd and profane rituals. The story is delivered by a group of academic authors, writing about the phenomenon, who dispute the origins and meaning of this silence. The visual subject matter is a series of stencils, lit from the rear, which flutter, rotate and hover in front of the camera, and which take on the appearance of a strange, comic but sombre dance.