LONDON.- Artist Klara Liden has been making waves internationally with acclaimed shows in both New York and her native Sweden . In her first UK solo show the recently opened Hayward Project Space presents a rare opportunity to see her video work from 22 November 2007 – 17 January 2008.

Before turning to fine art Liden originally trained in architecture, an influence reflected in her keen interest in the city and the rules and conventions that govern urban living. Of the four works on show, her most recent is Bodies of Society (2006). In the work we see Liden deliberately destroying a bicycle with a crow bar, after having slowly stalked her prey within the bare surroundings of her front room. In Paralysed (2003), Liden disregards social niceties by dancing wildly on a Stockholm commuter train while her fellow passengers try hard to ignore her or contain their astonishment.

This element of performance continues in the two other works in the show. 550 Jamaica Avenue (2004) shows Liden appearing with her back to the viewer in brief flashes where she plays the piano and sings, or rides an exercise bike while the camera roams around an abandoned apartment, still haunted by the detritus of life. The final work in the exhibition, Under Mattan (2006) is noticeably more quiet. The seconds go by as we stare out from an empty gallery space until the tableau is broken by the arrival of a figure dressed in a flesh-coloured bodysuit. Diving under the loose carpet the figure snakes along the floor towards the camera, leaving a disjointed trail of uprooted carpet in their wake.

In all of her films Liden exhibits a subtle defiance of accepted attitudes and behaviours, inviting us to question conventional social norms and the behaviour and expectations that govern both our public and private lives.