Apophenia is a new co-commission and the first major solo exhibition in the UK by London-based artist Leah Clements, produced in collaboration with Peer Gallery, London. 

For their exhibition at Arts Catalyst and Peer, Leah Clements has produced a new single-channel film, alongside a series of sculptural and audio works. Taking apophenia, a psychological state that is characterised by seeing patterns in unrelated subjects and objects as a starting point, this new body of work explores the complex physical and psychological responses she and other crips have to finding meaning in the experience of illness. 

In their single-channel film, also titled Apophenia, Clements observes a central character as she traverses different sites that have contemporary and historic relationships to water as a site for healing. Shot on location in Bath, Bristol, Wales and London, the work moves between the protagonist’s experiences of an ancient thermal Roman bath in Bath, where a temple was constructed between 70 and 60 AD, a medieval well in Wales, which has been a site of pilgrimage and healing since the 7th century, a contemporary luxury spa in London, and a domestic setting in Bristol. The film’s audio mixes a recorded conversation between Clements and writer Jenn Ashworth, who discuss Ashworth’s 2019 memoir Notes Made While Falling and the writer’s own experiences of apophenia, alongside a music score.

The materiality of disability access and the concept of interdependence informs the way that Clements produces their work, as well as how she approaches the exhibition-making process. Critically examining issues relating to the effects of chronic illness and disability within artistic and cultural production, Clements is also one of three authors of Access Docs for Artists, an online resource for disabled artists to communicate their access needs with galleries, art organisations and other employers. 

Dates: 7 February – 2 May 2026

Source: Arts Catalyst