Qualeasha Wood will be included in Compulsory Continued Connectedness: rest in a networked world at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea. The exhibition opens on 30 September 2026 and runs until 9 January 2027.
Included are her 2025 tapestries Influencer and a flaw in my code, works which were both included in I still dream of lost vocabularies at Autograph, London, and Malware, the artist's second solo exhibition with Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London.
The exhibition explores the impact of networked media on our collective mental wellbeing. It is led by a new commission and research from artists Caroline Sinders and Romy Gad el Rab, and alongside Qualeasha Wood, features work by Helen Cammock, Nina Davies, Rebecca Moccia, and Salvatore Vitale. The works featured address the mechanisms by which digital platforms reshape our lives andwellbeing, while also inviting visitors to consider whether the alternative to our networked world might not be to simply switch off, but to switch on a different kind of thinking, where rest is both resistance and replenishment.
Media scholar Ludmila Lupinacci coined the term “compulsory continuous connectedness” to describe our contemporary state of being online – addressing the impossibility of logging off and the paradoxical feelings of overwhelm and isolation created by tools designed to connect us.
