Idris Khan presents a series of haunting ritualised artefacts. He draws cross-associations between sculptural engraving and the traditional observances of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Devil's Wall, a set of three black sculptural monoliths, references a Hajj ritual of throwing seven stones at three walls, each wall standing in for the devil.
At Whitworth Art Gallery, until 13 May
Photograph: Victoria Miro Gallery/Yvon Lambert Gallery
Tall tales, political protest and manic gobbledygook all feature in this show mining the bottomless well of language. Artists include Ryan Trecartin, whose raucous videos explore the new lingual worlds birthed by Twitter, reality TV and YouTube.
At Zabludowicz Collection, NW5, Thu until 10 June
Photograph: Ryan Trecartin/Elizabeth Dee
As the newly refurbished Joseph Wright of Derby rooms at Derby Art Gallery reopen, Can You Hear Me Now?, an accompanying installation by Stephen Carley and Anna Mawby, contributes a contemporary mixed-media anthropological slant to Wright's air of experimental enquiry, with sections titled Joy, Fear, Desire, Guilt, Sadness, Disgust, Delight and Anger.
At Derby Art Gallery, Wright: ongoing, Can You Hear Me Now: until 10 June Photograph: PR
Conversations, more than 100 photographs selected from the Bank of America Collection, includes major works by many of the most charismatic photographers of all time, including Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Weston and Meridel Rubinstein. The conversations in question are sequences of paired and contrasting images.
At Irish Museum of Modern Art, until 20 May
Photograph: Meridel Rubinstein
In the last decade of the 20th century, just as it seemed abstract painting had run out of steam, along came irreverent enthusiasts of the genre such as Charline von Heyl, who defied the idea of a single line of modernist development and simply raided the history of abstraction for their own personal means.
At Tate Liverpool, until 27 May
Photograph: Fredrik Nilsen/Larry Lamay
David Cotterrell's immersive video installations have long tested how the movies and news footage of war relate to the reality. His latest show, Monsters of the Id, saw him travel to Afghanistan to create interactive video works that bring his experiences as an outside observer home.
At John Hansard Gallery, until 31 March
Photograph: David Cotterell
Michael Raedecker's paintings, fusing pale pigment and stitched thread, conjure sedate suburban worlds of crochet and flower arranging. But there's something about the former Turner nominee's creations that makes your hair stand on end. Set against eerie chasms of grey, his wilting blooms, ruined churches, lacy tablecloths and little isolated bungalows speak of a creeping anxiety, and of death slowly nibbling away.
At Hauser & Wirth, Savile Row, W1, until 5 April
Photograph: Michael Raedecker/Hauser & Wirth/Peter White
Seth Siegelaub is best known as one of conceptual art's early pioneers. But the curator, dealer and writer has, for the past 30 years, been an avid collector, amassing a vast archive of tapestry, embroidered silks and ancient weaves under the banner Centre for Social Research on Old Textiles. On show for the first time, the treasures include ceremonial headdresses from the Amazon to the Congo, Ming dynasty silks and an Egyptian tunic.
At Raven Row, E1, Thu until 6 May
Photograph: CSROT Historic Textile Collection at the Stichting Egress Foundation, Amsterdam
