EXHIBITIONS
Derby Day
'Derby Day' is a commission for Somerset House Studios’ Gallery 31, programmed by exploratory producing platform A---Z (Anne Duffau) in collaboration with utopian_realism. Open from Dec 7 2022 to March 19th 2023.
Consisting of an analogue short film, soundscape and installation 'Derby Day' is a violent investigation into the art world with a critical eye on intersectionality; defying and reclaiming this space whilst also conjuring a threshold into new potentials. Leaning into the theme of violence as both a tool of the oppressor and of meaningful liberation, Derby Day takes inspiration from 90s horror, anime and the clarity of Super 8mm home movie formats. The elements of this project explore what it means to be self-serving in a sector where we are expected to create in ways that ultimately serve those who categorise us, and what the landscapes that culminate from this indulgence may look like.
Blue Italian
'Blue Italian' is a short film by artist and filmmaker Gabriella Davies exploring Italian migration to the midlands through her late Nonno's 8mm home videos. Using his narration alongside clips from TV and film, this piece illustrates the gap between the romanticized images of Italians in popular culture and the harsh, overlooked reality of working-class industrial migration. This film is about archiving family histories as a way to understand ones own contemporary place in the world, and questioning what has changed when you - like your Nonno - still can’t find San Marzano tomatoes down your local corner shop.
Blue Italian has been developed with support of a NMG Development Programme Production Bursary award to Gabriella Davies and delivered in partnership with Four/Four. The Production Bursaries programme supports in the development of an ambitious and sustainable culture of production within the Midlands, by establishing relationships with project mentors and working with bursary recipients over a period of up to 9 months to develop and produce artwork to be exhibited at a partner venue.
Rack Your Brains at PAF Spring Olomouc
'Rack Your Brains' is an installation and film piece which discusses the limitations of creating work when marginalised. Using bright colours and influences from popular culture, this piece explores what it means to be accurately represented. Programmed by A---Z (Anne Duffau)
White Cube's 'Tomorrow 2021' Exhibition
'Alexa, Play Ultralight Beam' by Ashleigh Williams and 'Call Me By Your DWP Number' by Ashleigh Williams and Ellie Harman Taylor, August 2021.
"Addressing issues that continue to motivate a new generation of artists including identity and sexual politics, existing hierarchies and histories, visibility and disenfranchisement, as well as personal and collective trauma of inquiries. Equally wide ranging are the chosen mediums, which includes performance, moving image, assemblage and installation, and also sculpture, painting and drawing."
Artists have been selected Irene Bradbury, Susanna Greeves, Hannah Gruy, Susannah Hyman, Toby Kamps, Capucine Perrot and Soraya Rodriguez.
Please scroll on the left to view the work.
Welcome to Babeworld Exhibition
A Babeworld Solo Show at Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, July-Aug 2021 by Ashleigh Williams, Gabriella Davies, Ellie Harman-Taylor and Caitlin Whittle.
Installation with sound. (To hear accompanying audio, please watch the building of the show video at the bottom of the page, documentation also below).
Welcome to Babeworld” is a very pink, very garish installation- which explores the precarity of sex work, the importance of community building, and the dystopian realities that exist for some of us.
In a version of a dystopian future, not so far from our current reality, we visit Pandemonium. Hell on earth, where two sex workers take refuge in a dollhouse at the meeting points of fragmented realities. The dollhouse is a garish ‘Babeworld pink’, and a reddish glow spills out from the windows that look out onto scorched land and hellscapes. Signs of a past presence leaves half eaten crisps and drinks to stagnate in this apocalyptic place.
Sex workers are a large community yet work in isolated conditions due to criminalisation. Unable to work under the same roof without the threat of facing criminal charges, and existing on the outskirts of society is attempted social control- we create alternative spaces and refuge. The dollhouse seeks to explore the daily mundanities of the life of a sex worker whilst portraying the negative external forces that demonise us. Without sensationalising or glamourising sex work, we manipulate perception and make use of storytelling via science fiction and fantasy to discuss the complexities of the sex worker experience.
Splitting ourselves between realities and roles as we navigate the world as sex workers, means picking up and putting down alternating personas. So through this back and forth, our realities split and merge- creating a piece of our imagined and desired reality with the dollhouse. Babeworld colours, currency, and reflections of our real-life spaces are a reaction to our isolation and desperate need for a safer space.