The Ulterior Narrative

Curated by artist Michael St. John, The Ulterior Narrative investigates the complexity of storytelling in a non-binary world, rejecting the notion of a single, linear narrative. The exhibition embraces multiple perspectives, emotions, and lived experiences that define contemporary life. It asks: What is necessary for a narrative? Can a story remain singular if it resists clarity, closure, and the desire to “know”?

As an extension of the exhibition, Alex McQuilkin curated The Ulterior Narrative Cinema, a moving image program featuring works by seven women artists. In an era where reality and representation constantly merge across television, film, and social media, her selection highlights artists who repurpose mass culture to expose its contradictions and rewrite its scripts. Nadja Verena Marcin presents the video //KIDS// alongside works by Alex McQuilkin, Marianna Rothen, Claudia Bitran, Cindy Hinant, Jen DeNike, and Sue de Beer.

Marcin’s //KIDS// (2012) conceptually revises Larry Clark’s cult film Kids (1995), examining youth culture, conformity, and the manipulation of media imagery. The piece portrays a world where imitation replaces individuality, playfulness turns into performative cruelty, and social rituals blur the line between rebellion and submission. Through “quotation, inversion, irony, twilight, and exaggeration,” Marcin constructs a mirror of a society obsessed with youth and spectacle. //KIDS// exposes the cyclical reproduction of stereotypes, questioning how mass media globally shapes moral numbness and collective irresponsibility.

The Ulterior Narrative Cinema is part of The Ulterior Narrative exhibition and was curated by Alex McQuilkin, an artist known for her introspective explorations of female identity in Western culture. Bringing together seven female artists who use moving images to reconstruct contemporary definitions of womanhood, the program takes place at TICK TACK, Antwerp’s platform for contemporary art dedicated to time-based practices and international collaborations. Through its hybrid model of exhibition and screening, The Ulterior Narrative reflects TICK TACK’s mission to foster critical engagement with image, story, and temporality.