As the inaugural chapter of a four-part exploration of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Eat Your Shadow invites us to confront the illusions that shape contemporary existence. Taking its cue from the first stage of the cave allegory—the shadows—this exhibition reimagines the ancient metaphor for our digital age, drawing parallels between the deceptive shadows on the cave wall and the illusions fostered in every surface of modernity.
Set within a rave context, Eat Your Shadow is first and foremost a space for collective confluence and the joy of relation. From here we flow into investigations through visual art while deep house and techno form a pulsating atmosphere. Sculptural, digital, and performative works fill the site, creating a network of sensory disruptions.
Set within a rave context, Eat Your Shadow is first and foremost a space for collective confluence and the joy of relation. From here we flow into investigations through visual art while deep house and techno form a pulsating atmosphere. Sculptural, digital, and performative works fill the site, creating a network of sensory disruptions.
The exhibition presents works by seven multidisciplinary artists, spanning nine pieces across sculpture, animation, and performance. These works, primarily in 3D, physically invade and challenge the audience’s spatial experiences while projections allude to the intangible. In contrast to the duality of light and shadows, the tactile presence of these sculptures adds depth and dimension to the dialogue, examining complexity in the forms we view and occupy. The tension between two-dimensional shadows and three-dimensional physicality echoes the dissonance between perception and perspective.
AFTERS
ELLE OLIVER
By entering a club space are you inviting others to objectify you? Ellen Oliver’s dance piece ‘AFTERS’ delves into the complexities of the female party experience. The work explores the tension between becoming part of the experience rather than being an active participant.
Originally conceived as a group piece in Germany last year, inspired by Ellen’s time in british promoter clubs and Berlin nightlife, ‘AFTERS’ has now been adapted into a solo performance, offering a personal reflection on these themes.
Creative Assistance and Improv Performers:
Erin Cottrell & Susie Dore
Composer: Patrick Heardman
Promo Images: Cam Ivor
Costume: Alison Oliver
CRADLE &
ULTRASOUND
Chloe Farrell
Chloe Farrell is a Brighton-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the human-nature relationship within the context of climate breakdown. Her works Ultrasound and Cradle span digital and physical media, examining technology's role in our disconnection from nature. Central to her practice is the motif of a bird, symbolising more-than-human ecology and raising awareness of global species decline. Through embryonic imagery, these works reflect on the intersection of human and natural environments, and propose interspecies relationships as a way of restoring our bond with the natural world.
CYCLE 1
GIGI
Cycle 1 is a continuation of Gigi's previous project, Cease To Exist. This body of work continues exploring mortality via the metaphor of washing laundry. This metaphor draws parallels between the sense of agony and frustration experienced in the repetitive acts of living and washing laundry. By drawing similarities between a household chore and the weighty subject ageing and dying, Gigi aims to eliminates the macabre and solitude surrounding mortality, offering a sense of comfort and connection. Restringing the clothesline, Cycle 1 continues the washing cycle by bringing 4 ‘skin’ sheets into Plato’s Cave. Regardless of locations, the cycle repeats.
METAL DOG 2
Maximillian King
c.JAN 2024
Galvanised Steel,
40x48cm
40x48cm
Maximillian King is an artist and filmmaker. His work looks at the malaise, discomfort and autonomy created by ‘super-modernity’. Investigating loneliness, non-places and the ‘in-between’.
He is driven by a desire to excavate timeless universal symbols that connect us. He lives in London with his partner Nell, a writer and their dog, Maggie.
OVER THE BECK
Ruby Jean Waterhouse
c.JAN 2024
Using water as material, a ‘video-drawing’ reflects the idea of the self as water. Themes of rebirth and the cycle of life are inspired by the water at The Hollies, Meanwood, West Yorkshire. It invites a moment of reflection and meditation while reimagining past works. The projection interacts with the space through suspension and reflection, with light bouncing off oval mirrors to create shifting marks on surrounding panels. Each installation transforms, offering new perspectives shaped by to its environment.
SURRENDER
ekabo donyi
c.2024
45/70/200 cm
This work initiates a broader body of work exploring post-humanism as a conceptual space for decolonising identity. In a reimagining of the white flag, Surrender acts as a transitional marker, urging viewers to pause, confront, and negotiate the colonial, Eurocentric binaries of violence and domination embedded in Western conceptions of being human.
Amid diasporic complexities of globalisation and creolization that fragment identity, and neo-colonial systems of borders and nations that severely restrict mobility for subaltern communities, the piece proposes a departure from being human—a symbolic shedding of skin as a liberatory act.
The flag’s shape is derived from a UV map (a digitally rendered 2D topographical projection of a 3D form) of a human head. Its surface is marked by a hole positioned where a bindi traditionally rests, referencing this ancient Indian symbol for ‘the point at which creation begins’ to suggest an opening of new possibilities. Crafted with aluminium—a non-corrosive, widely used metal rooted in extractive colonial histories yet vital to contemporary and future technologies—the work presents the material's illusion of structural strength with its extraordinary malleability, mirroring the fragility and fluidity inherent in this transitional era.
Artist’s Note:
By including themselves in the materials list (ekabo donyi & aluminium), the artist rejects human-centric hierarchies, reframing creation as a collaborative dialogue with materials. This act aligns with decolonial and post-anthropocentric thought, emphasizing reciprocity over utilization.
Amid diasporic complexities of globalisation and creolization that fragment identity, and neo-colonial systems of borders and nations that severely restrict mobility for subaltern communities, the piece proposes a departure from being human—a symbolic shedding of skin as a liberatory act.
The flag’s shape is derived from a UV map (a digitally rendered 2D topographical projection of a 3D form) of a human head. Its surface is marked by a hole positioned where a bindi traditionally rests, referencing this ancient Indian symbol for ‘the point at which creation begins’ to suggest an opening of new possibilities. Crafted with aluminium—a non-corrosive, widely used metal rooted in extractive colonial histories yet vital to contemporary and future technologies—the work presents the material's illusion of structural strength with its extraordinary malleability, mirroring the fragility and fluidity inherent in this transitional era.
Artist’s Note:
By including themselves in the materials list (ekabo donyi & aluminium), the artist rejects human-centric hierarchies, reframing creation as a collaborative dialogue with materials. This act aligns with decolonial and post-anthropocentric thought, emphasizing reciprocity over utilization.