The Spin Off, Rafał Zajko’s first UK institutional solo exhibition, is a constantly evolving theatrical installation that takes the artist’s own practice as a starting point to reflect on the ways in which memory and repetition play a part in contemporary culture. This presentation of an entirely new body of work spans sculpture, installation, ceramics and fresco, and employs folklore, pop culture and speculative fiction to reflect on the late-capitalist drive to eternally refresh the familiar – to ‘foreverise’.
Coined by author Grafton Tanner, ‘foreverism’ is defined as the need for the excavation and elongation of the past to immortalise it as the present. Foreverisms include the reviving of trends, the remixing of classic songs, the expansion of cinematic universes, the reboot; The Spin Off.
At the centre of this exhibition is Funny Games (2025), Zajko’s largest work to date, transforming Gallery 1 into a continuously evolving environment. Featuring modular platforms containing glazed ceramic reliefs, egg-shaped seats, and a towering egg totem, the installation is reconfigured daily by gallery staff.
Zajko draws inspiration from Frederik Kiesler’s Endless Theatre (c.1924), an unrealised project that envisioned infinite possibilities for artistic presentation and interaction. Here, Zajko explores these possibilities, creating a space where the audience becomes an active participant, engaging with the artwork as it shifts
and changes. From above, the large sculpture resembles an architectural plan, evoking public or communal spaces used
for worship, education, and governance. Zajko draws parallels between symmetry and repetition often found in these designs and the cyclical nature of life and society, reflecting on the tension between nostalgia and progress. The recurring motif of the egg symbolises these ever-present returns.
The installation also serves as a set for performance by members of Contemporary Elders, the Gallery’s over 60s group. Through workshops with Zajko and other artists, the group developed the performance and explored movement, choreography and voice, challenging notions of who is included in our visions of the future.
In Gallery 2, A Star Is Born (2025) commands attention as a self-performing wall sculpture that resembles a camera shutter, blending light and smoke through a programmed, automated system. An evolution of Zajko’s past artwork Lazarus (2020), which relied on the artist’s hidden presence, using his vape to produce a slow, deliberate cloud of smoke, this new sculpture fills and empties itself in rhythmic intervals, exhaling smoke without requiring the artist’s presence. Viewers can peer behind the structure, observing its inner workings, creating a space where technology and ritualistic action intertwine. Surrounding the sculpture, the walls are painted in a geometric mural style, transforming the space into an environment where architecture becomes an extension of the artwork.
Placed at the centre of the window gallery, Cruel Intentions (2025) is a bio-concrete relief with cast chewing gums and a series of frescoes made with raw earth pigments; a technique used by the artist here for the first time.
Through rigorous and playful investigative processes, Zajko’s practice of world-building opens up possibilities to engage with the artworks on various levels – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
In Spring 2026 this exhibition will travel from Rafal Zajko’s first home in the UK – Southend – to Poland’s Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, the city where he spent his childhood.