HOUSE STYLE presents a series of new commissions initiated by Panel with Annette Lux and Steven Cairns in response to, and alongside, a specially selected film programme sourced from the British Film Institute National Archive.

HOUSE STYLE takes as its starting point a monthly Technicolor film series called Roundabout (1962–1974). Roundabout was designed to promote Britain as a progressive world leader to south and south-east Asian audiences. Produced by the British government through its Central Office of Information (COI), every issue was packed with stories that portrayed Britain in the vanguard of research, the forefront of manufacturing, the driving force of the Commonwealth as well as the creative edge of the arts and design. If the message could be summed up in a single word it would be ‘modern’, the idea being that Asian cinema audiences were presented with a vision of what their future might look like and how Britain was helping to realise this vision.

New works by Hilda Helström, Travis Jeppesen, Rob Kennedy and Daniel Padden reconsider and reposition the stories told, investigating the ways in which cultural identity, status and style can be understood through design, industry and making. Their experimental new narratives provoke a new reading of the promotional feature, juxtaposing ideas of national identity with tradition and modernity, documentary and fiction.

Exhibition dates: 25 October 2013 – 19 January 2014
Exhibition design by Steff Norwood with Bernie Reid
HOUSE STYLE installation views photographed by Keith Hunter