Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude
7th October 2025 – 11th January 2026
HENI Project Space
Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX
Free.
Taiwanese artist Val Lee makes her UK debut at the Hayward Gallery with an exhibition exploring solitude, dislocation, and collective memory through film, photography and costume.
The Hayward Gallery, in partnership with the RC Foundation, Taiwan (R.O.C.), will present Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude, the first solo exhibition in the UK by Taiwanese artist Val Lee. This exhibition is the fourth in the RC Foundation Project Space Exhibition Series, which highlights the work of emerging international artists.
The exhibition will take place in the HENI Project Space at the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery — a space dedicated to showcasing contemporary work by early-career artists, free of charge.
The Presence of Solitude brings together film, photography and costume, reflecting Lee’s ongoing interest in themes of isolation and detachment. Her practice constructs ambiguous narratives featuring indistinct figures, creating a sense of dislocation in both time and meaning. This approach invites viewers to consider how personal experience and collective memory are shaped by wider political and social structures.
Val Lee says: “Presenting this work at Hayward Gallery allows me to further explore ambiguous fields—where collectivity is not given, but quietly rehearsed in the blank spaces of perception. I’m glad to share this piece in London at Hayward Gallery – where form, time, and relation can stay in flux.”
The exhibition features new iterations of two recent works: Valley in the Minibus (2024) and The Sorrowful Football Team (2025).
Valley in the Minibus engages with the concept of “non-places” — a term introduced by French anthropologist Marc Augé to describe spaces of transience such as airports, motorways and shopping centres. In the work, a group of strangers travel through a shifting landscape in a van, accompanied by a masked, costumed figure. A newly commissioned video introduces this same figure DJing alone in an undefined space. Three of the full-body costumes, with long hair and veiled masks, will be displayed within the installation. The work explores the potential for connection and intimacy through experiences of separation.
Yung Ma, Senior Curator of the Hayward Gallery, says: “Straddling visual and live art, Val
Lee has embraced different principles to forge an artistic language that invokes various
experiences, past and present. While the exhibition will explore the deeply felt presence of
solitude in her recent works, it is ultimately a hopeful gesture about finding connections in
the most unexpected places.”
The Sorrowful Football Team (2025), presented here as a slide projection, depicts a blind football team playing in the snow in northern Japan. Blind football is an established sport designed for visually impaired players, and Lee uses it here as a metaphor to reflect on the legacy of political repression during Taiwan’s White Terror period (1947–1987), while also suggesting the possibility of resilience and agency in solitary conditions.
Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude is curated by Yung Ma, Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery, with curatorial assistance from Felix Choong. The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (R.O.C.), and will be presented in parallel with Gilbert & George: 21st Century Pictures at the Hayward Gallery.
Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude opens on the 7th of October 2025 until the 11th of January 2026 at HENI Project Space at the Hayward Gallery
©2025 Hayward Gallery
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