Hilary Lloyd – Very High Frequency
Hilary Lloyd presents Very High Frequency, a major new commission that considers the scope and spirit of the trailblazing playwright, television dramatist and writer Dennis Potter (b 1935–d 1994). Kvadrat is proud to support the exhibition with over 200 meters of textiles (Divina 3, Divina Melange and Zulu 2).
Lloyd’s layered installation combines audiovisual elements with archival materials and performative interludes, staging a non-linear encounter with Potter’s work for and on television. Engaging with the themes, confrontations and atmospheres that defined Potter’s work, the exhibition navigates his explorations of illness, death, sex, power and class.
Potter has been lauded as Britain’s most pioneering playwright, television dramatist and writer. Best known for his TV serials, his Brechtian techniques brokered a meaningful and daring relationship between experimental theatre and television. Challenging the dominant naturalism of terrestrial television dramas, Potter successfully pioneered a multitude of dramatic devices to blur fantasy and reality, including intertwined flashbacks and fantasy sequences, direct-to-camera address, lip-syncing, musical interludes and the use of adult actors to play children. Although celebrated for his creativity as a screenwriter and journalist, Potter’s work and personal life were not without controversy and a number of his screenplays were banned by the BBC for decades.
Throughout her practice, Lloyd has presented still and moving images within precise arrangements of video equipment that inhabit the surrounding spaces like sculpture, connecting a physical dimension to the act of looking. Within Very High Frequency, Lloyd’s installation draws from backstage spaces, theatre sets and television studios. In an attempt to avoid conventional approaches to dramaturgy and performance, the films she presents resist standard notions of narration. Instead, Lloyd’s installation functions as a shifting tableaux to be encountered, placing the audience within a choreographed experience that unfolds from the many people, narratives, images, and locations that the artist has engaged with over the course of making the exhibition.
Key to Within Very High Frequency is a new series of short films that feature actors, producers and collaborators connected to Potter’s work and life. They include broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, whose own extraordinary interview with Potter weeks before his death is exhibited in full in the Project Studio, and producer Kenith Trodd, perhaps the dramatist’s single most significant collaborator.
Lloyd’s exhibition and accompanying public programme of screenings offer an opportunity to critically reflect on Potter’s enduring relevance to contemporary culture. Kvadrat supports the exhibition with upholstery textile Divina 3 in black and Divina Melange 3 in green, both by the designer and artist Finn Sködt, including curtain textile Zulu 2 in pink by Giulio Ridolfo. The gallery space will function like a theatre, utilising movable tracks for dramatic transition. Here, Kvadrat textiles serve as dividers, shaping distinct zones within the space.
Potter’s formidable influence across theatre, media, art and popular culture from Twin Peaks (1990) to Mad Men (2007) appears indivisible from his belief that television could be a significant vehicle for artistic expression. As Potter said in his 1993 James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, “Here was a medium of great power, of potentially wondrous delights that could slice through all the tedious hierarchies of the printed word and help to emancipate us from many of the stifling tyrannies of class and status and gutter-press ignorance.”
Supporters and Funders
Supported by Kvadrat. Lead Programme Supporters: Ampersand
Foundation, Shane Akeroyd and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Supported by a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England and The Studio Voltaire Council. With additional support from Brian Boylan and Raven Row, London.
Studio Voltaire’s 2025-2026 exhibition programme is supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts.
Notes to Editors
Exhibition dates:
10 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
Address:
Studio Voltaire,
1A Nelsons Row,
London SW4 7JR
United Kingdom
Opening times:
Monday – Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday – Sunday: 11 am–6 pm
For more information, please contact:
Trendgruppen PR
Helena Walfridsson Ekblad
helena.walfridsson-ekblad@trendgruppen.se
Tel: +46 73 663 76 12
About Hilary Lloyd
Hilary Lloyd (b. 1964, Halifax) lives and works in London. She has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions including: Ok darling, show’s over!, Roland Ross, Kent, England (2024); You want it to be art and I want it to be a magazine, International Centre for Contemporary Culture, San Sebastian (2024); Dog bEar Scarf, Josey, Norwich (2022), Car Park, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); Chance Encounters V, Loewe Foundation, Miami (2019); Bar, BAR, Turin (2019); Theatre, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2017); Awful Girls, Dorich House Museum, Dorich House Fellowship & Dora Volume 1, Kingston (2017); Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2016); Robot and Balfour, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2015); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2012), Artists Space, New York (2011); Raven Row, London (2010); Tramway, Glasgow (2009); Le Consortium, Dijon (2009); Kunstverein München (2006); Waiters, Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects, Venice Biennale (2003); Kino der Dekonstruktion, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2000); and Chisenhale Gallery, London (1999). Lloyd was nominated for the 2011 Turner Prize for her exhibition of 2010 at Raven Row, London.
About Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter (b. 1935–d. 1994) was a journalist, novelist, cultural commentator, broadcaster, producer, director and playwright.
Born in a mining village in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire and graduating from Oxford University, he briefly worked as a journalist and entered politics, unsuccessfully standing as a Labour candidate in the 1964 general election. However his most significant cultural and artistic contributions were made within the realm of British television drama, where he authored more than forty single plays, serials, and adaptations.
His notable contributions include many of the BBC’s Wednesday Plays and acclaimed series such as Pennies from Heaven (1978). The latter, conceived as a ‘television novel’, marked a pivotal moment in Potter’s career, as one of the earliest instances in which his characters engaged in stylised performances of popular songs—lip-synching and dancing to original 1930s recordings.
Although Potter consistently denied that his work was autobiographical, many of his dramas were informed by personal experiences. Perhaps most notably, his lifelong struggle with psoriatic arthritis was reflected in The Singing Detective, in which the protagonist’s illness closely parallels Potter’s own condition.
Prior to his death in 1994, he completed two final scripts, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus. Remarkably, he successfully proposed that the productions be a joint venture between rival broadcasters, the BBC and Channel 4 – marking a landmark collaboration in British television history.
About Studio Voltaire
Studio Voltaire is one of the UK’s leading not–for–profit arts and education organisations. Championing emerging and under- represented artists, we commission and produce exhibitions, artist development programmes, civic and learning projects, live events and offsite commissions. Studio Voltaire is a registered charity and part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.
Web: studiovoltaire.org
Instagram/Facebook: @studiovoltairelondon
TikTok: @studiovoltaire
About Kvadrat
Kvadrat was established in Denmark in 1968 and has deep roots in Scandinavia’s world-famous design tradition. A leader in design innovation, Kvadrat produces high-performance, design textiles, rugs, window covering and acoustic solutions for both commercial and residential interiors.
Our products reflect our commitment to colour, quality, simplicity and innovation. We consistently push the aesthetic, technological and functional properties of textiles. In doing so, we collaborate with leading designers, architects and artists including: Patricia Urquiola, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Margrethe Odgaard, Alfredo Häberli, Doshi Levien, Giulio Ridolfo, Peter Saville, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Demand and Olafur Eliasson.