Recently I visited Two Queens in Leicester and was surprised by the exhibition that greeted me. It was a piece that was very deep contextually though initially I did not know any of this, I just walked into Two Queens and saw a corner shop.
This was a very surreal experience which became even more strange when entering the building, the open ceiling exposed the facade of the shop but all the right things were there, a lotto stand, newspapers, till, fridge, and the cadbury sign above the doorway all combined to confuse your perception.
Stranger still were the various cards dotted around the area, some explicitly talking to you the viewer of art while others advertised taxis or funeral homes. The unifying factor was a subtle piece of information, a number, which turned out to be a code for a hidden door in the rear of the shop.
Once inside this secret room things were truly peculiar, it looked as if people had just left the room but had been sat there playing games until we arrived. There were drinks, coats and even some illicit equipment for partaking was there. This was accompanied by a strange video of gameplay from a low poly simulation, in this simulation the characters interacted with one another in a way that mirrored street talk and other urban interactions in dark alleys.
After reading the contextual information I realised the finer points of the exhibition which was overall a great experience, it was brilliant to see such an ambitious project within a local setting pulled off so well by the artist and the gallery team. It has made me think of more large scale work but also work around transplanting environments, an idea i was already exploring and interested in pursuing.