Stay the Same Never Change

Premiering at Sundance, American artist Laurel Nakadate's first feature film, set in the sprawling malls and suburbs of Kansas City, explores the anxieties teenage girls have about the desire to find love. Nakadate uses non-actors and employs a non-linear structure to introduce us to the everyday concerns of its young women as they learn the power of their sexuality, and use it to discover their sense of self and place in the world. Frank, confrontational, awkward and darkly humorous, Nakadate's film seeks the truth beyond the fabricated sanitized squeaky clean worlds of the Oprah show, the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, and the Disney Channel's peculiar vision of what it means to be young growing up in today's world of superficial surface consumption.

With major solo shows at MOMA PS1 in New York and the Zabludowicz Collection, London, Laurel Nakadate’s work in video and photography are consolidating her reputation as a major emerging artist. Stay the Same Never Change was premiered at the Sundance Festival and acclaimed at screenings in New York's MoMa and Lincoln Center.