As the title suggests, the work by the Swiss artist Zilla Leutenegger is based on ideas of identity and its many manifestations in contemporary life. In her ever-expanding body of work, the artist invents new characters with wide-ranging identities, often placing herself in absurd or unfamiliar circumstances. Her fictional characters serve as extensions of the artist's own personae; playful, funny, sometimes remote yet strangely familiar.

If I am not here, I'm over there features two recent works by Leutenegger. In My First Car (2001) a car is being driven across what appears to be a lunar landscape. The car stereo blasts, snatches of radio voices are overheard and yet we're never certain that there's a human presence in the car at all. In Zipcode (2001), one of Leutenegger's characters is talking on the phone in Japanese, or rather what sounds like Japanese to the untrained western ear.

The prevailing atmosphere of loneliness and detachment evoked by these staged settings are equally informed by a sense of curiosity. What would it be like driving around alone on the Moon? And, what would my voice actually sound like if I attempted to speak in Japanese? With the help of drawing and video animation, the artist explores the possibilities of her own multiple personalities while playfully attempting to address these seemingly absurd questions. Her fluent transitions from drawing to video, incorporating photography and sound, also illustrates the expanded vocabulary of artistic practice today.

This is the artist's first one-person exhibition in the UK. Hugely prolific, Leutenegger has made more than 50 video and other artworks during the past 5 years. She established herself in the mid 90's with a series of video installations, drawings and animations that revealed a distinct talent and voice. In the past few years her work has come to wider critical and public attention and has been shown extensively around Europe.