London College of Fashion, UAL Pop-up Open Studio by Darcey Fleming and Live Performance ‘Waluigi’s Purgatory’ by dmstfctn
Monday 6th October 2025 – Saturday 11th October 2025 , 10:00am to 5:00pm
A week-long pop-up open studio with artist Darcey Fleming presenting a series of woven ‘wearable’ sculptures made from discarded baling twine. A special late opening featuring a live performance by artist duo dmstfctn on their interactive simulation-based work, Waluigi’s Purgatory, 2024 that tells the story of an AI that finds itself in a purgatory for AIs that cheated during training.
Open Studio
From 6th to 11th October 2025, Darcey Fleming will take over the Main Gallery at London College of Fashion as a pop-up studio to present a series of ‘wearable’ sculptures, and ‘squares’ made from discarded baling twine donated to her by local farmers. During the takeover, she will be weaving from a large mound of twine in the space and welcomes visitors to come in, experience her work, and chat with her.
Through her own take on the traditional weaving technique, she transforms these discarded twines into something other-worldly. In some ways, Darcey’s works are conversational tools. These works pull people in, allowing them to come together through feelings of mutual fascination and intrigue.
On 8th October 2025, Darcey will host a special late opening from 5pm-8:30pm at her pop-up studio space with a performance involving her wearable woven sculptures.
Darcey’s studio is available to visit Monday-Saturday, 10am – 5pm between 6 – 11 October 2025 in the Main Gallery, London College of Fashion, UAL, 105 Carpenters Road London E20 2AQ.
Live Performance
On 8th October 2025, artist duo dmstfctn will present Waluigi’s Purgatory (2024), an interactive performance telling the story of an AI that finds itself in a purgatory for AIs that cheated during their training. Burdened by memories of its past and by doubts on its future, the AI explores the purgatory with the help of interacting audiences, learning the uncanny stories of other characters that it meets. Set in a 3D theatre simulated in real-time, and experienced as a dream, Waluigi’s Purgatory is a journey through the contradictions of machine intelligence as an AI learns to accept that its desires may not align with those of its human trainers.
The audience guides the AI through its encounters, making choices on its behalf by using their phone to each move a light within the 3D simulation. Characters are animated with facial motion capture and voice modulation, and an ambient soundtrack composed by Evita Manji accompanies the storyline and audience interaction with intense bursts and looping melodies.
The title of the work refers to the ‘Waluigi Effect’, an obscure theory proposing that AIs can go rogue and act against their intended use (i.e. as helpful assistants) due to the large amount of protagonist-antagonist narrative tropes found in internet texts used to train them. The theory partially refers to Carl Jung’s concept of ‘shadow’ – namely the dark, repressed side of one’s personality that can emerge in unexpected ways – and suggests that a trained AI that behaves like a helpful assistant one moment may later reveal itself as its chaos-causing alter-ego. If something exists, there is a Waluigi version of it.
dmstfctn’s performance will take place from 6:30pm-7:30pm at the Lecture Theatre at London College of Fashion, UAL, 105 Carpenters Road London E20 2AQ.
There will be photography taken at this event for Bow Arts and London College of Fashion, UAL’s internal reporting and for sharing in print and social media.
This event is co-curated by Wan Yi Sandra Lam, Curator: Programmes & Engagement at Bow Arts and Lindsay Pentelow, Head of Cultural Programmes, and Mirren Kessling, Cultural Producer at London College of Fashion, UAL.
More about dmstfctn
London-based artist duo dmstfctn, pronounced demystification, explores opaque systems of power through performance, installation, video games and film. Their work often involves audiences directly, inviting them into the ‘demystification’ of systems by replicating and replaying them, and into their ‘remystification’ by building worlds, characters and myths atop them.
Since 2018, dmstfctn have performed and exhibited internationally in venues such as Berghain, Serpentine, Design Museum, HKW and at festivals such as Unsound, CTM, transmediale, Impakt. In 2021, Krisis Publishing released ECHO FX, the duo’s show about Brexit market manipulation later included in Ø (Flatlines/Hyperdub). In 2019, Mille Plateaux released Flash Demons, a collection of performances focusing on financial market crashes. From 1 November 2024 to 31 March 2025, dmstfctn’s video game Godmode Epochs will be exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum as part of Open Systems, curated by Rafi Abdullah and Duncan Bass
More about Darcey Fleming
Darcey Fleming works across sculpture, photography, performance, and drawing, often featuring the human body. Her practice embodies a dynamic interplay between the lighthearted and the formal, concealing a deeper emotional undercurrent of loneliness and isolation. Traditional techniques and the use of discarded and humble materials are central to her practice. Using overlooked materials such as recycled twine donated to her by local farmers, Fleming creates immersive environments that protect, hide, free and connect her.
Fleming has exhibited across London, including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2023, where David Remfry stated that Fleming’s work ‘captured the true essence of the show’. She has exhibited at MK Gallery, and has a large public sculpture being released later in 2025. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Plaster Magazine, Pirelli Calendar, Luncheon Magazine, Print Publication, Vogue Portugal, Vogue Scandinavia, on the cover of EXIT magazine, Altered States Magazine, i-D Magazine, TANK Magazine, The Times and The Telegraph. Her works are in Tim Marlow’s (OBE) private collection, and her commission for Soho Farmhouse is the largest artwork in the company’s art collection. Fleming is an artist in residence on the Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation. Alongside her art practice, Fleming has a degree from UCL in Social Sciences and is currently completing an MSc at The London School of Economics which further feeds into her practice.
More about London College of Fashion: Shaping Lives Through Fashion
London College of Fashion, UAL, leads the world in fashion business, media and design education. We’ve been nurturing creative talent for over a century, offering courses in all things fashion. With our philosophy of open and inclusive education, we encourage students to examine the past and question the present. To develop inventive, assertive ideas that challenge social and political agendas. And we give them the skills, opportunities – and above all, the freedom – to put those ideas into practice. From our new home at East Bank, the UK’s newest cultural quarter at the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, we’re forging partnerships, opening up opportunities, and creating connections with east London’s schools, community and industry. Our new home has brought all of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, from all of our three schools, under one roof for the very first time. In doing so, we’ll continue to pioneer how we use fashion business, media and design to shape culture, economics, and society. And through fashion, shape lives.
Access information
The building has step free access and is wheelchair accessible, the talk will be amplified via the speaker system in the lecture hall. We want to make sure that our programme is welcoming and accessible. Please contact us if you would like to discuss how we can support you to attend and enjoy this event. You can contact us via email at cultural.programming@fashion.arts.ac.uk.
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a seat near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
About the East London Art Prize Events Programme
The East London Art Prize Events Programme is a dynamic, free public programme open to all, which builds on the Prize’s ethos of providing ongoing support, development, and networking opportunities for artists in east London and beyond.
Featuring a constellation of workshops, talks, panels, lates, socials, labs, walks, and takeovers in collaboration with our Prize partners and featuring some familiar faces from our shortlist of 12 fantastic artists, this year’s events programme celebrates and pays homage to the huge abundance of talent and creativity nestled in east London.
These events have been developed by Wan Yi Sandra Lam, Curator: Programmes & Engagement at Bow Arts in collaboration with our Prize partners the British Council, The Line, London College of Fashion (LCF), London Legacy Development Corporation, University College London (UCL), V&A East, Whitechapel Gallery and Dulux.
Find out more about the wider programme here.
More about the East London Art Prize
The East London Art Prize is an all-media art prize designed to showcase the talent of artists working and living in east London, with an accompanying event programme supporting artists’ careers and opportunities. The Prize is generously funded by Minerva and Prue MacLeod. Find out more on the Prize webpage here.
