About the artist: Holly Davey

Holly Davey: Scene no. 7. 2020. 31.5 cm x 20.5 cm. Original photograph from the Bulwer Collection, The British School of Rome, red lighting gel, bulldog clip.

Since graduating from Goldsmith College, London, Holly Davey has exhibited across the UK and internationally. Recent exhibitions include A Script for an Archive, at Chapter, Cardiff, (2021); Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, (2020); and The British School of Rome, Rome, (2019); as well as in 2018, The Conversation, at g39, Cardiff, and The Hardwick Gallery, Cheltenham Spa; and Charcoal is the Colour of Absence, The Newbridge Project, Newcastle.

She received a Creative Wales Award in 2017 and was the Creative Wales Fellow at The British School of Rome in 2019. She is currently studying for a PhD at The Slade School of Fine Art, London.

EXCERPTS FROM THE PROPOSAL

“I will use this opportunity to radically think about how we can approach working with archival material, changing the assumed narrative into something more real, truthful and complete. Most archives only tell half the story of their content, often marginalising women’s voices, even if they are there. I approached this commission by inverting/reimaging the already existing female narrative, readdressing the gender balance with the archive and revealing something currently unseen.”

ABOUT THE COMMISSION