Holly Slingsby’s practice centres on performance, be it live or to camera. Plundering imagery from a variety of religious and mythical traditions, her work explores the myriad ways humanity has attempted to visualise the divine.
Her props and costumes use everyday materials like cotton and cardboard to emulate something sacred; they are recycled and disposable, like many of the icons that populate our everyday visual culture. Using this inherited lexicon of symbols she invents hybrids: the unconvincing deities of imagined belief systems.
Slingsby studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University (2003-2006) and the Slade School of Art, London (2008-2010). Her recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at SHIFT., London (2012); and performances at museums and galleries including Spike Island, Bristol (2014); Modern Art Oxford (2010 and 2013); the Freud Museum, London (2013); Art Licks Weekend, London (2013); the Barbican, London (2011); and the ICA, London (2012).