This autumn, the South London Gallery (SLG) will present Thrill, Fill and Spill a major solo exhibition by artist Yto Barrada. Barrada’s multidisciplinary practice has long addressed micro-histories, borderlands, cultural phenomena, and strategies of resistance. This exhibition will span textile, film, sculpture, and painting, and feature new and previous works. The title calls back to the slightly formulaic landscape design motto of ‘Thrill, Fill and Spill’ – a technique to create drama, volume and cascading edges in designing planted areas – and perhaps also in gallery exhibitions.
The exhibition will feature new textile pieces, some of which were dyed at The Mothership, Barrada’s artist-led natural dye centre and residency space in Tangier, Morocco, an eco-campus where artists, gardeners and creatives come to work and study. Tangier Island Wall (2019), shown for the first time in the UK, is a sculpture made of crab traps which references Tangier Island, located in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA. This island’s small community and their crab fishing livelihood is increasingly threatened by rising sea levels due to the climate crisis. Barrada’s porous “sea wall” of crab traps references the inhabitants’ wish for a seawall to protect the island – what the artist describes as a ‘beau geste’ – a noble act, but one that is ultimately futile.
Expanding on concepts of perimeters and defensive structures Acrobatic Formations is a series of 14 model sculptures that reflect the long tradition of human pyramids in Morocco. Originally employed by warriors as a tactical means to scale enemy fortifications, the formation of human pyramids was also a spiritual practice. Over time, human pyramids evolved into a form of acrobatic expression and by the nineteenth century it had been adapted into circus performances for Western audiences. This series of wooden sculptures are models for an outdoor artwork commissioned by and exhibited at MoMA PS1, New York, from 2024 to 2026.
The exhibition also features Tintin in Palestine, a new textile work based on notably varying versions of the cartoon by Hergé. The adventure story was first published around 1940 as a children’s supplement in a Belgian newspaper and then redrawn and altered for Tintin magazine ten years later; both versions were set during the British Mandate of Palestine. This new work in hand-dyed silk is part of Barrada’s ongoing series which applies Emily Noyes Vanderpoel’s 1902 colour-analysis system to convert images into geometric grids.
Barrada is renowned for her commitment to building communities and fostering cultural exchange, as exemplified by her 2007 founding of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa’s first art house cinema and cinema cultural centre; and in founding The Mothership. The exhibition will embrace artistic cultural exchange through an artist residency at The Mothership conducted by Emma Ogawa Todd. Following her residency Ogawa Todd will return to deliver workshops for young people as part of the SLG’s Communities and Learning Programme.
Yto Barrada has recently been chosen to represent France at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026.
The exhibition is curated by Sarah Allen, Head of Programme, South London Gallery, in dialogue with the artist.
Exhibition design: Mira van den Neste
Installation: David Angus, Gallery Technical Manager, South London Gallery
Press release from South London Gallery
Image: Yto Barrada. Installation view of Thrill, Fill and Spill, South London Gallery, 2025. Image courtesy of South London Gallery
