Derived from old fashioned slang terms meaning ‘detective’ and ‘storyteller’, Gumshoes and Fabricators brings together 6 artists of international and local origin, whose work connects together by shared themes of humanity, narrative and the subjective. This new exhibition of young contemporary artists is showing for the first time in Grimsby town centre and is here to playfully show us there is so such thing as reliable narrator.
Artists
Freya Madeline Tate - Film still from Run Rabbit Run (1974)
Freya Tate is a photographer whose work is concerned with people and specifically abstract psychological concepts such as love, imagination, and fear. Tate’s photographs deal with real-life ideas and emotions, but depict a stylised version of reality, favouring stripped-back colour palettes, stylish costumes, exciting narrative, and playful settings. She is interested in our relationship with storytelling and how we experience visual media such as cinema and theatre. Tate invites you to dip your toes into her fantasy world of ‘Run Rabbit Run’, film stills from a fictional 1970s motion picture following the loose narrative of an anonymous fugitive on the run. She also shows her theatrical portraits exploring the psychology of performance and play.
Kalika Aloni - ‘Ghar’ - ink, Matt inkjet paper
Kalika Aloni, born in India and growing up in Qatar, creates artwork which draws from autobiographical experiences of migration and diaspora, her practice hopes to answer the philosophical question ‘What is home?’. Reflecting on the impermanent aspects of home, Aloni’s piece titled ‘Ghar’ combines photographs taken from various houses sited in countries to present home as a poetic nowhere. Using the instant book format, the house like objects hold a concrete poem within their walls which respond to Herve Guibert’s book ‘Ghost Image’.
Celeste Drouin-Davis - September to December 21 (Concrete Poem)
(2022) Tipex, ink, paper, steel. 1 x 3 metres
Celeste Drouin-Davis views her practice as personal and observational in nature, specifically drawing upon her own diary writings to create poetic works. The projection of the tortured artist persona takes over during the process of making from the unconscious desire to hide, creating a disconnect. Currently on display are ‘Thoughts on Being Inside’ and ‘September to December 21 (Concrete Poem)’, both pieces interpretate and regenerate her diary entries from specific time periods yet exist as contrasting forms. Drouin-Davis allows us to delve into the artist’s headspace, creating an intimate relationship with us, highlighting the subjective human experience.
Sam Henty - Battle Jupon, panel from Eborakon Ofriór Tapestry
Linen, Raw Cotton, Wool, 2022
Sam Henty is a Yorkshire based artist, working with a multidisciplinary practice. He employs para-fiction and super-fiction to develop a series of narratives, based around identity, alter egos and personas. He uses the historical timelines as a framework in structuring a family lineage. The works exist as an archival collection, documenting the series of anachronistic autobiographies through an ever-expanding object-based archive, playing with authenticity and satire. As part of his displayed work, Henty presents to us ‘Eddard Harken: Earl of Harkmore’, the remains of a skeleton discovered by archaeologists in Yorkshire 2022.
Valeria D Roglinova - Meditations on First Philosophy (2020)
60 cm X 80 cm, Oil on canvas
Valeria D. Roglinova is a 22-year-old Bulgarian artist and graphic designer who moved to Leeds in 2019, prior to which she spent her adolescent years living and studying in Berlin, Germany. Her passions encompass a variety of artmaking techniques and materials, some of which are painting, digital illustration, sculpting, knitting, and writing. She is interested in the Connections between the individual perception of reality versus the objective interpretation of what is ‘truly’ real. The works, some of which are self-portraits, currently exposed in the gallery, abide by that theme.
Shannon Thompson - Untitled image from ‘Forget Me Not-Blue’ (2019)
Shannon Thompson is a social documentary photographer born in Grimsby. Her practice revolves around bringing light to causes that she cares about and feels lack the attention they deserve such as public sexual harassment, in which she contributed to the ongoing conversation when the issue was at its height last year. Currently on display is her body of work titled ‘Forget Me Not-Blue’, a series of poetic images that explores memory issues specifically caused by dementia. The creation of this work was inspired by her time working as a home carer in Grimsby, her photos are taken as a second-hand attempt to look at life through the perspective of someone living with dementia, focusing on memory triggers and visual distortions.
