“I had absolutely no fear,” says former Slits guitarist and punk icon Viv Albertine of taking on the role of artist D at the last minute, at the behest of her close friend Joanna Hogg. “I said: ‘I’m putting myself completely in your hands, I’m like your baby, do what you want with me.’” The writer and director’s third feature film Exhibition depicts the often-silent relationship of her two protagonists—D's husband H is played by conceptualist one-time YBA, Liam Gillick—who are readying to leave their home. Defying the rural settings of 2008’s Unrelated and 2010’s Archipelago, this work led the former apprentice of Derek Jarman back to her home city of London. “I wanted to push myself into new territory,” explains the director, who premiered the film at the 2013 Locarno Film Festival. “I was interested in looking at a marriage, a husband and a wife of a certain age existing within the space in which they live and work.” The third protagonist of the story is the setting itself; the property’s staunch angles and walls of glass form one of the only private homes built by late Modernist giant James Melvin, to whom the film is dedicated.

Exhibition opens in the UK on April 25.