‘the face of you, my substitute for love’ Adam Farah-Saad & Elvis Universe

When
5th - 25th April
10am-5pm, Tuesday to Saturday
Entry Free

Exhibition opening times:

Fri 5: 10-5pm.
Sat 6: 10-5pm.
Sun 7: CLOSED.
Mon 8: CLOSED or by appointment.
Tues 9: 10-5pm.
Weds 10: 10-5pm.
Thurs 11: 10-5pm.
Fri 12: 10-5pm.
Sat 13: 10-5pm.
Sun 14: CLOSED
Mon 15: CLOSED
Tues 16: 10-5pm.
Weds 17: 10-5pm.
Thurs 18: 10-5pm.
Fri 19: 10-5pm.
Sat 20: 10-5pm.
Sun 21: CLOSED
Mon 22: CLOSED
Tues 23: 10-5pm.
Weds 24: 10-5pm.
Thurs 25: 10-5pm.

Where
Metroland Studios
91 Kilburn Square
NW6 6PS

The gallery is wheelchair accessible with step-free access. There are wheelchair accessible toilets.

Please note that while the show is open to all, some artworks do contain depictions of nudity and adult themes.

Bankers boxes are stacked in a pyramid, with decorative fountains placed amongst them. — *Exhibition View*. Photo courtesy of the artist and Public Gallery.

“Inevitably, we leave a part of ourselves behind, weaving our identity into the very fabric of our surroundings”.

Adam-Farah-Saad and Elvis Universe’s exhibition, ‘the face of you, my substitute for love‘, opens at Metroland Studios on Thursday 4 April, 6–8pm. Running until Thursday 25th April. The exhibition includes new artworks by both artists and ‘remixes’ of previous works that were shown by Adam in Public Gallery’s Focus Prize-winning Frieze London 2023 stand. It is the first exhibition to feature works by Elvis Universe.

Poster display books mounted to a wall with photographs and artworks inside. — *Exhibition View.* Photo courtesy of the artist and Public Gallery.

A decorative fountain sits on top of cardboard bankers boxes. — *Adam Farah-Saad & Elvis Universe, CORTISOL / EDEN (Teaser Mix), 2024, Bankers’ boxes, indoor water features, KA Black Grape Soda Bottles, dried baby’s breath flowers, perforated metal benches.* Photo courtesy of the artist and Public Gallery.

The exhibition’s themes reflects on memory, mourning, connection and catharsis. Full of echoes and reverberations: the emotions that stay with us long after something has happened. Adam uses familiar objects like archive boxes and bus station benches, bringing them together like theatre props. Moving through the space he invites us to witness a narrative of loss. This could be the loss of connection, of control, of innocence, of love, or all of these combined. Elvis’s drawings and poems are raw and immediate expressions that stay with us, resonating long after we’ve encountered them.

The intent of this exhibition is to make us consider: How do we weave our identity into, and from, the fabric of our surroundings? To what extent are we formed by the objects that surround us and, in turn, how do we leave parts of ourselves behind?

Adam and Elvis’ work offers the visitor two distinct yet overlapping narratives. One is of loss and longing, the other of trauma and desire. In the exhibition, these overlap and converge. Through this sense of connection, we are left with a hopeful portrait of shared growth and healing.

Green funeral glass sits in a carefully laid pile on the ground, interspersed with crystal mushrooms. — *Adam Farah-Saad & Elvis Universe, One Day (Psilocybin Soulmates), 2024, Green glass chippings, mushroom crystals.* Photo courtesy of the artist and Public Gallery.

Adam Farah-Saad has worked with Metroland Cultures since 2020, when he was commissioned to create a piece of art for the first Brent Biennial, ‘On the Side of the Future’. He was part of the Curatorial Committee for the 2022 Brent Biennial, ‘In the House of My Love’, and has been a resident at Metroland Studios since 2021.

Exhibition Guide:

Exhibition Text ‘In Crowded Rooms’

Written by curator, Christy O’Beirne

The Artists

Adam Farah-Saad

Adam Farah-Saad lives and works in London. Farah-Saad – also known as free.yard – uses a range of media and cultural references to evoke coming-of-age memories tied to a sense of place and time, to relationships, love and loss. A graduate from Camberwell College of Arts, London, in 2014, recent solo exhibitions include at Public Gallery, London, UK (2023); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2021); and South London Gallery, London, UK (2018). In 2022 he was on the Curatorial Committee of the Brent Biennale. He is the recipient of the Focus Stand Prize 2023 at Frieze London, the 2021 LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award, and the South London Gallery Postgraduate Residency Award (2017). freeyard.net

Elvis Universe

Elvis Universe is an artist, poet, activist, mental health advocate, amateur philosopher and self-proclaimed gangster of love. His work includes contributions to Arcadia Missa’s HOW TO SLEEP FASTER ISSUE 14: Mental Health And Art in Crisis (2024).

Exhibition Curator

Christy Eóin O’Beirne

Curator, producer and writer whose work interrogates and re-articulates notions of
diaspora through the lens of fragmentation, land, shibboleth, mourning and decay. As Assistant Curator at Metroland Cultures Christy produced the final commission of the 2022 Brent Biennial, Sean Roy Parker’s With Us All. In 2023, he was selected for the 17th Edition of the Young Curators Residency Programme at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
christyeoinobeirne.com

Please note that while the show is open to all, some artworks do contain depictions of nudity and adult themes.

Go to the exhibition opening

Opening: ‘the face of you, my substitute for love’ – Adam Farah-Saad & Elvis Universe

Join us for the opening of this new exhibition by Adam Farah-Saad, and collaborator Elvis Universe.