Gutted

21 November 2024 – 11 January 2025 | East Gallery

Award-winning artist Laura Wilson presents Gutted at East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts.

Gutted is an installation which comprises a script, performance, film, and audio-soundtrack.

The work is presented within Ladybower, a large sculptural amphitheater, inspired by the two circular spillways which regulate the water levels in the Ladybower reservoir, and supply water to Sheffield. In an immersive journey which interweaves fiction and real-life events, the narrative of the piece explores gut processes, instincts, and ecosystems; from digestion inside our bodies to landscape-scale infrastructure and archaeological digs. Bringing to life digestive processes and encouraging us to consider how we think and feel through our stomachs, the work takes the idea of the hole as both an entry and exit point, a barrier between the inside and outside, it can be a portal between worlds — it consumes, and it vomits. The artist invites you to enter the space and follow the story of Gutted, while holding a grapefruit. Live readings of the script will be presented over the course of the exhibition by actress Nadia Emam and others.

Live reading of the script

A special live reading of the script will be performed on Saturday 23^rd November by Nadia Emam. The performance is free but booking is advisable due to limited capacity. The performance is at 1pm and repeated at 2pm with an approximate duration of 20 minutes.

Other performance dates to be announced.

Gutted by Laura Wilson was commissioned by Site Gallery in 2022, supported by the Jerwood New Work Fund and The Elephant Trust. It is presented in partnership with East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts for the AHRA2024 international conference, Body Matters.

About the artist

Laura Wilson (b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, lives & works in London) is interested in how history is carried and evolved through everyday materials, trades and craftsmanship. She works with specialists to develop sculptural and performative works that amplify the relationship between materiality, memory and tacit knowledge. 

Wilson’s interdisciplinary and research-based works have been exhibited widely including at: CCA  Derry~Londonderry, Northern Ireland; Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2023); Site Gallery, Sheffield (2022); The Collection, Lincoln with Mansions of the Future, UK; First Draft, Sydney, Australia; The Landmark Trust, Wales, UK (2021); 5th Istanbul Design Biennial – Empathy Revisited: Designs for More than One; Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich, UK (2020); The British Museum, London, UK with Block Universe; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK; and The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London, UK (2018); SPACE, London, UK; V&A Museum, London, UK; and Invisible Dust at Hull and East Riding Museum, Hull, UK (2017); Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2016 & 17) Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK (2016); Whitstable Biennial, UK (2014); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK and Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2013); W139, Amsterdam and De Warande, Turnhout, Belgium (2012). Her project Trained on Veda, a malted loaf and evolving artwork was initiated during her residency at Delfina Foundation in 2016 developed in partnership with TACO! and Grand Union supported by Arts Council England. 

Wilson was the inaugural Kitchen and Garden Artist in Residence at MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, part of Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK (2021-23). She became a Churchill Fellow in 2011 and has been awarded the Jerwood New Work Fund (2019), an A-N Bursary (2021 & 2023), the Dover Prize 2021 and the V&A x Bow Arts Fellowship 2024. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the V&A Museum, London developing a new body of work inspired by the history of woman’s workwear. 

She is interested in working collaboratively with other artists and co-curated exhibitions: I Have Eaten It (1-28 February 2022) with Open Space and In-Side-Out-Side-In (22 September – 22 December 2022) with Site Gallery. She is currently developing an arts strategy and commissioning programme called Tenderground for the almshouses of Southwark Charities, a programme with Clare Cumberlidge & Co.