What Is It That We Are Looking For

Nine artists explore transformation, memory, fiction, and the unknown through drawing and close observation. Looking beyond the immediately visible, the exhibition asks what might change when we look more closely. About Bringing together nine artists whose practices share a foundation of drawing and close observation, What Is It That We Are Looking For presents work informed by transformation, looking at reality from a distance - or through a microscope - through a veil of memory, fiction, and the unknown. The exhibition explores the feeling of reaching out and then moving closer, looking beyond what is immediately visible toward the unseen or overlooked. Fragmentary moments and fleeting encounters become suspended, then start to shapeshift until they are almost unrecognisable. The longer we look, the more things seem to change. Across the works, common threads emerge in atmosphere and in the space between the familiar and the faraway; in encountering one another and our surroundings, and in the ambiguity of everyday experience. Within the exhibition, individual practices come into dialogue, exploring both intimate and encompassing scales and a range of material processes, all whilst holding onto a shared preoccupation with strange beauty and nonlinear narratives. About SET’s Associate Members Programme This exhibition is presented as part of SET’s Associate Members Programme, which offers artists studio space, alongside access to project spaces and opportunities to independently curate or participate exhibitions, workshops, and events. The programme supports a wide range of practices, from performance and installation to music, sound, print, and textiles, and is designed to provide space, visibility, and development opportunities for early-career and underrepresented artists working in London.