Dream logic pervades first UK survey for film artist Daria Martin at MK Gallery

Exhibition: Daria Martin – Sensorium Tests, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, until April 8 2012

Britain appears to have been slow to warm to London based artist Daria Martin. This is only her first UK survey, despite past solo shows at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Kunsthalle, Zurich and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

A quick once-over of her new show at MK Gallery offers some clues why. She makes 16mm films; they are not an easy get. The scripts are generally minimal. Her esoteric themes include synaesthesia, dreams and animism. Clearly these travel better than they have so far played at home.

But the installation in Milton Keynes transforms the gallery into a network of black boxes which encourage the visitor to stay. Viewing her films more than once allows them to get under the skin. Architectural team Post Works have designed a darkened interior where the dream logic of Martin’s films can take over.

In Harpstrings and Lava, a sleeper is woken from a bed of rags to the sounds of a harp played by a woman in a parallel space. She is troubled by snakelike mangrove roots. The harpist stands in a surrealistic colonnade and plays with sadistic relish. There is no obvious takeout, but it makes weird sense second time around.

The film next door, Closeup Gallery, is more accessible, warmer and more colourful. A magician and his assistant take turns to shuffle and deal a pack of cards. They sit across from one another on a round table with three spinning tiers. The soundtrack is infectious. The visual effects are kaleidoscopic. You don’t need to know any more.

Perhaps some backstory is needed for the film which lends its title to the whole show. This is Sensorium Tests, a recreation of an experiment into mirror touch synaesthesia. It’s a condition in which the test subject experiences physical sensations upon seeing a second person being touched.

While ostensibly a scientific event, Sensorium Tests is infected by the mystery which can be found across all of Martin’s films. There is more interpersonal drama than cool impersonal research. It features actors and real synaesthetes, a scripted scenario and a sequence of prerecorded audio interviews about the condition.

It builds to an understated climax and the implications of the experiment are rendered with a poetic flight of images which evoke the results: a hand run along a brick wall, a researcher throwing open a window. If Martin’s aim is to make the world a stranger place, she succeeds.

On the day of my visit, there was one more mystery thanks to a technical hitch with a fourth film, Soft Materials. It was a pity; this exploration of artificial intelligence and robotics could have joined up the worlds of animism and remote touch. As it was, this show almost fell into place but remained as tantalising as a pleasant dream.

• Open 12pm-8pm (11am, Saturday, 11am-5pm Sunday, closed Monday). Admission free.
  

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