Walk into the world of Gilbert & George with Pandemonia

Take a tour of the 2025 Hayward Gallery exhibition Gilbert & George: 21ST CENTURY PICTURES in the company of performance artist and living art project Pandemonia and the gallery’s chief curator, Rachel Thomas.

The pair begin their tour of the exhibition with FATES (2005), a multi-layered picture that opens up the idea of religion, which prompts a discussion about symmetry, the notion of ‘the double’ and ‘art as a way of freeing ourselves from the world’.

Pandemonia and Thomas go on to consider the cycle of life and death that’s explored in Gilbert & George’s 2019 series of PARADISICAL PICTURES, before looking at how the artists often use humour as a means to make their work accessible, even in pictures with a serious tone, such as 2016’S SEX. MONEY. RACE. RELIGION.

This wander through exhibition concludes with 28 STREETS (2003); a picture which reflects upon the changes Gilbert & George have seen in the area of East London in which they’ve lived and worked since the 1960s, leading Pandemonia to ponder ‘have they affected the streets, or have the streets affected them?’