Benedict Drew @ Rhubaba, until 17 March

In this trademark video installation by Benedict Drew we are confronted with a rubber mask pulsating in a paroxysm of claustrophobic disillusionment with contemporary TV culture. An accompanying heartbeat of increasing pace evokes the anxiety of the mask, which the written commentary in turn induces in the viewer, with expertly subtle pathos.

Yet the film reminds us of the impossibility of interacting with pre-recorded video as a medium. In a world where the screens that surround us are increasingly amenable to touch, it insists that video "does not respond to you." In unsettling contradiction to this, however, are the film’s subsequent claims that "it wants to." The narrative progresses from a discussion of its own form to revelations about the face’s psychology. "Let’s focus on the face," it instructs, undermining its own initial argument and making a sympathetic character of the mask. "It felt," the film repeats. Like its fellow consumers, safe in their "Primark onesies," we are told that the face feels "inarticulate, clumsy, sweaty.’" Drew seems to be problematising the concept of ‘comfort’ and our desire to feel comfortable, and how contemporary culture and media encourage this desire, marketing the onesie as the ultimate lifestyle accessory. He suggests that by choosing to stay in with TV dinners and cookery programmes, consumers are depoliticised. By emphasising the presence of feelings in the mask, Drew mimics the way in which media and technology make us feel that our gadgets are our friends.

On the floor beside the film screen, the mask is positioned inside the titular onesie, which consolidates the installation’s central themes but adds little new content or perspective. However, Drew’s juxtaposition of projected image with psychological characterisation, alternately enforcing remoteness and encouraging familiarity, is a successful and alarming manipulation of our relationship with screens. [Eleanore Widger]