The Horror Show! is a fantastic new exhibition which has just opened at London’s Somerset House. Curated by Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard and Claire Catterall, the exhibition celebrates the UK’s greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, examining how ideas rooted in horror have informed the past 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain. We are invited to not consider horror in creativity as a genre, but rather as a reaction to troubled times. The curators rightly view horror as a tool for the marginalized to use to express themselves. It makes us more alert and present.
The impressive range of contributing artists and reference points create a retrospective of our lives, and include, amongst many others, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Harminder Judge, Derek Jarman, Margaret Thatcher, David Shrigley, Jane Arden, Rachel Whiteread, Philip Sallon, Pam Hogg, Leigh Bowery, Jake Elwes, The Batcave Club and Jordan Mooney. The exhibition is split into three parts, Monster, Ghost and Witch.
Monster
Opening The Horror Show! Monster begins by delving into the economic and political turbulence of the 1970s and the high-octane spectacle and social division of the 1980s. Against a backdrop of unrest and uprising, it charts the origin story and ascent of the individuals who will go on to disrupt, define and destroy British culture, while exploring the monsters which plague society today.
Ghost
The show’s second act, Ghost, marks the collapse of hyperinflated 1980’s culture into an uncanny temperature change that presided over the 1990s and early 2000s. It traces an unsettling path through to the global financial crisis of 2008, a turning point in time between a century of old and new, at the dawn of a digital age of faceless audiences and invisible cyber wars. A highlight in this section is a separate, almost hidden, room in which Derek Jarman’s seminal 1993 film, Blue is screened. This was Jarman’s last film, and consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour, specifically Yves Klein Blue. This fills the screen, as background to a soundtrack in which Jarman and some of his long-term collaborators describe his life and vision.
Witch
The exhibition’s final act, Witch, focuses on 2008’s financial crash until the present day, and celebrates the emergence of a younger generation and their hyper-connected community – a global coven readily embracing a dynamic grounded in integration and equality. Penny Slinger and Zadie Xa forgo the patriarchal occult and old-world druidism with a new sorcery, rooted in ecology and body autonomy.
Horror not only allows us to express our deepest fears; it gives a powerful voice to the marginalized and society’s outliers, providing us with tools to overcome our anxieties and imagine a radically different future. The timing of this exhibition is perfect given the current horror show in British politics. A must-see – you’ll have a horrific time!
THE HORROR SHOW!
A TWISTED TALE OF MODERN BRITAIN
SOMERSET HOUSE
Embankment Galleries
South Wing
27 Oct 2022 – 19 Feb 2023
★★★★★
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
