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The titular work of Sadie Benning’s solo exhibition ‘Sleep Rock’ at Camden Arts Centre takes its name from two images contained within it: a large hand clenched around a rock and an old photograph of a woman asleep in bed The woman has entered the ephemeral, fluid state of sleep Her fingers, mirroring the ones that grasp the rock, are closed in on themselves, making a soft, lethargic fist This dualism crystallises the precarious ‘in between’ states of transition and unconsciousness that reoccur throughout Benning’s practice   Sleep Rock is one of 19 new wall-based works (all 2018) which constitute Benning’s first solo show in the UK Incorporating wood, resin, enamel, photographs, hand-drawn imagery and transparencies, the works are a hybrid of painting, photography and sculptural relief Polished, heavy and projecting at least two centimetres from the wall, Benning’s objects have been slowly accreted over time Photographs and drawings are suspended between layers of resin so distinct they cast internal shadows This accumulative process distills and creates relationships: images are read next to, over or through one another All entombed in a reflective resin casing, Benning’s compositions offer up a multitude of associations and the inescapable reflection of your own face   Juxtaposing unsettling, familiar and nostalgic imagery, Benning’s resin vignettes exist on the verge of nightmare In Out of the Bag, lurid orange smiley faces are applied over a cartoonish, purple-grouted brick wall At the very surface of the work sits a vintage photograph of two white cats emerging from a suitcase, with a caption that reads ‘letting the cats out of the bag’ Since the 1960s, the smiley symbol has been adopted as an emblem in advertising, children’s TV, adult comic books, acid house culture and at least one series of murders Set against a brick wall – a familiar backdrop used in live standup comedy – and overlaid with a crude cat joke, they manifest as an ode to enforced, synthetic cheerfulness   Since the late 1980s Benning has been known for their experimental videos, which they began making as a teenager on a Fischer-Price Pixelvision toy camera Often recorded in the artist’s bedroom,