Colony Sound at Marlborough Gallery

You know the drill when it comes to Mayfair galleries — white cube type spaces with impeccably lit expensive works on the walls. Marlborough Gallery has been in Mayfair in 1946 so you’d expect it to follow this model.

Prepare to have all expectations blown out of the water in their latest exhibition by duo Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, who have completely transformed the space.

I enter through what looks like a cross between a phone shop and a bureau de change, complete with the gallery staff visible behind perspex.

It’s a sign I’m in for something special and it doesn’t disappoint with a series of interconnected rooms that take me though a Japanese style store, a copper coated room and a laboratory.

The mind-blowing maze continues upstairs into what looks like an abandoned office and a waiting room — waiting for what remains a mystery.

I’ve been in this gallery dozens of times and I was confused as to how this ambitious transformation has taken place, with stairs and rooms I never knew existed.

The idea behind the exhibition is just as bizarre, centred around an abandoned 20th century communications systems — the rather sinister named The Smile designed to connect the central nervous systems of all humans.

It’s a Cold War relic, borrowing from the CIA’s failed attempts at Psychic Driving to imagine a world where mind control has become a reality. This is a truly unsettling dystopian show that is an unforgettable experience.

Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe: Colony Sound at Marlborough Gallery is on until 16 October.

Written by Tabish Khan