Alice May Williams’ 2016 moving-image work Dream City – More, Better, Sooner shows at the exhibition Ocular Inc. at Thames-Side Studios. Williams' film is meditation on the changing face of London’s landmark Battersea Power Station, where the smokestack energy colossus of yesteryear now rapidly transforms into an upscale lifestyle playground of tomorrow. Combining archive footage of the building in its industrial heyday with computer-generated projections of the form it will soon inhabit (or what, if things had been different, it might otherwise have become), Williams’ film concentrates our attention just as firmly on the present moment – on the rumble of construction and the grumbles of disruption that currently characterise the site. 

Ocular Inc transforms the Thames-Side Studios Gallery into an anonymous workplace. Dissecting past, current and imagined modes of labour and production, artworks direct the visitor-employee around the site. From sculpture to sound, the artists’ manual or mechanical processes simulate manufacturing and working environments.
Installed within the grounds of a working factory in the industrial area of Woolwich, and against the backdrop of continuous Brexit uncertainty, the exhibition takes place at a poignant economic and political moment. Presenting UK and international artists, Ocular Inc examines the cycles of work, escapism and reward, whilst de-mystifying the artist’s job title.