Sweet Cautery
unu. Laura Marija Balciunaite, Iolo Walker and Bea Xu
10-11 April, 2026
‘Today, only an apocalypse can liberate– indeed, redeem– us from the inferno of the same, and lead us toward the Other.’- Byung-Chul Han.
‘Sweet Cautery’ focuses on the topic of love through the edifices of cosmic love and the “love industrial complex”. The notion of the “love industrial complex” begins with Byung-Chul Han’s analysis of the erosion of erotic and relational depth under neoliberal capitalism, in which intimacy becomes optimised, commodified and subject to systems of production.
For this show at Bolding, unu (urban noetics union), comprising artists Iolo Walker, Laura Marija Baiciunaite and Bea Xu, will be exhibiting a series of works that approach love from multiple vantage points: from the homoerotics of grief, to the plant-heart connection of the rose path, to ancient Greek ‘agape’ to the contemporary phenomenon of the ‘twin flame’ partnership. These themes are activated through a live, immersive performance unfolding across the gallery.
The performance opens with Laura at her sound bowls, reading a poetic polemic/ capitalist critique delivered as meditation, before a red thread is wound around the audience and rose petals are pressed onto bodies like balm on wounds.
The research underpinning the exhibition approaches love as both a changing and everlasting phenomena, spanning myth, spirituality, and contemporary digital culture. The rose is used in the exhibition as a symbolic anchor, historically associated with spiritual mystery, feminine divinity, and healing while also linking to the idea of heart intelligence,’ a form of intuitive and affective knowing that refers to the concept that the heart is not just a physical organ but also a centre of intuitive wisdom and emotional intelligence. Alongside this, classical notions of love have been seen as a pursuit of wholeness. In Plato’s Symposium love is a spiritual intermediary between mortals and gods. Agape, in this context, describes a movement beyond individual desire toward a universal, spiritual love– one that begins with the longing for another but ultimately seeks unity with a higher, divine principle.
Central to the show however is the contemporary phenomenon of the ‘twin flame’: a belief that has circulated widely online that two individuals can be split halves of the same soul, drawn together through an intense, turbulent dynamic of attraction and separation. This relationship is typically characterised by a “runner” and “chaser” polarity, in which cycles of union and rupture are understood as mechanisms for accelerated self-actualisation. Within this framework, love becomes both a site of transcendence and a crucible of suffering, with the promise of self-realisation emerging through emotional extremity.
In this sense, the twin flame model sits uneasily between spiritual aspiration and psychological patterning, raising questions about whether such relationships represent genuine pathways to transformation or rearticulations of attachment dynamics and trauma bonds. This ambiguity opens onto a broader critique of what might be described as the “love industrial complex.” Within this landscape, love is no longer only relational but becomes something that can be engineered or simulated. Drawing on speculative fiction and biopunk imaginaries, the research considers how boundaries become blurred between authentic connection and constructed experience in the pursuit of love which can veer toward spiritual warfare. A fan turns on and petals scatter as a talisman constellates across the whirring surface, infecting the room with a parasitic feeling
This marks the first formal collaboration between unu’s members, following two years of shared research and production around Magic & Rituals as part of Rupert’s Alternative Education Programme (2021–2023) in Vilnius, Lithuania.
With thanks to the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
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urban noetics union (unu) is an inter(/cross)-continental research collective looking into the expressions of consciousness and knowledge in urban environments through the language of capital and alien ecologies. Based across Wales, Lithuania and China and - at various atemporal moments, London - it convalesces around the city’s gravitational forcefield to feel, to remember and to excavate shadows around the dysphoric visions that charge modernity.
Bea Xu is a Chinese British psychic worker exploring the use of psycho-technologies for reality production through live art and mixed media installation. A practicing integrative, transpersonal psychotherapist, they have shown work at New Fears Gallery, Gossamer Fog, FORMA, LungA Festival and Pratt Institute - with a recent residency at Organhaus, Chongqing, producing works for Bolding.
Laura Marija Balciunaite is a former artist flâneuse becoming a he(art) worker between Vilnius and London. Channelling a need for softness through sound, drawing, and somatic movement, she produces sensual energy and healing in vulnerability, exploring new forms of intimacy tightly connected to the erotic flow of the universe. Laura’s work has been presented at the Medūza (LDS) Gallery, Žeimiai Manor, Rupert, the Kaunas Performance Weekend, Ubiškės3.
Iolo Walker is a multidisciplinary artist from Newham, currently based in Eryri, Wales. Their practice spans filmmaking, digital embroidery, performance and sculpture, which intertwine to explore mimicry and dysmorphic landscapes. Alongside exploring the materiality of film as a medium, filmmaking is used as an ontological device to research horizontal levels of production.