Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Strange Evidence

Colour film still depicting a surgical scene from above. A patient lies on an operating table with their face illuminated against darkness while medical professionals in green surival gowns lean over them. Surgical instruments are visible, including a reflective instrument or mirror. The dramatic lighting and palette of surgical greens and warm skin tones emphasise horror-film qualities and themes of bodily transformation.
Michelle Williams Gamaker, Strange Evidence, film still, 2026.

Commissioned and produced by Matt’s Gallery, London and Offline, Glasgow.
Black-and-white close-up portrait of a face emerging from darkness. Only the eyes, nose, and slightly parted lips are illuminated by a spotlight while the edges of the face fade into shadow. The upward gaze conveys vulnerability or apprehension, combing Hollywood glamour lighting with a sense of psychological distress.
Michelle Williams Gamaker, Strange Evidence, film still, 2026.

Commissioned and produced by Matt’s Gallery, London and Offline, Glasgow.
Black-and-white film still of a psychoanalytic session. In the foreground, a figure sits in shadow with their back to the camera, facing another figure standing beside benetian-blinded windows. The standing figure wears a tailored 1940s checkered suit, dark sunglasses, and has their head fully wrapped in bandaded. The room it lit by a table lamp, with framed artworks on the walls, evoking film noir aesthetics and the clincal atmosphere of mid-century psychoanalysis
Michelle Williams Gamaker, Strange Evidence, film still, 2026.

Commissioned and produced by Matt’s Gallery, London and Offline, Glasgow.
Dates and Opening times

Fri 5 Jun- Sun 21 Jun,

Mon - Sun, 12pm - 6pm

Venue

Offline, 138 Niddrie Road, G42 8PR

Participants
Michelle Williams Gamaker
Presented by

Offline, curated by Lydia Honeybone

Supported by

Co-commissioned by Matt's Gallery and Offline. Supported by Creative Scotland, the Bukhman Foundation and Cockayne Grants for the Arts. Additional support from Goldsmiths, University of London, Kingston University, The British Academy and Arts Council England.

Accessiblity

Level Access, Step Free: The venue has ramped or level access and/or lifts to upper floors


Toilets: The venue has toilets available for visitors, but these are not accessible


Gender Neutral Toilets: The venue has toilets not separated by gender or sex

 

Michelle Williams Gamaker’s Strange Evidence is a genre-bending body horror film noir focusing on 1930s screen star Merle Oberon. As a contracted star for British director Alexander Korda’s London Films, Merle was the so-called “exotic”, playing stereotypical roles. To transition to leading roles, she hid her mixed Sri Lankan, Indian and British heritage, claiming to have been born to white parents in Tasmania, Australia. Behind the scenes, she maintained strict control of her image, relying on make-up, lighting, dermabrasion (a type of intensive skin resurfacing), and skin-bleaching procedures, and passed as white until her death in 1979.

Alternating between colour and black and white worlds, Strange Evidence revisits the cosmetic procedures Merle underwent to maintain this illusion, offering speculative psychoanalysis to unpack the star’s self-censorship—what the artist calls Fictional Healing. The project sensitively explores racial stigma, trauma, and complex decisions shaped by prejudice and restrictive labour conditions, which continue to impact performers today.

Strange Evidence forms the first part of Williams Gamaker's new phase in her Fictional Healing series, following Fictional Activism and Fictional Revenge. It also completes her Critical Affection trilogy (2021–2026), including The Bang Straws (2021), and Thieves (2023).