Jamie Shovlin

15th September – 25th November 2017

The Gallery is proud to present Subs (2017), a new film commission from Jamie Shovlin.

Subs follows a season in the life of youth Sunday League football club, Anstey Swifts. Titled in relation to the subscription fee paid by each child to play, Subs fuses elements of the essay film, social history and self-portrait to create a multi-dimensional account of the Swifts’ expanded landscape. The film will be displayed at The Gallery in a specially designed widescreen installation.

The film installation forms the centrepiece of the exhibition at The Gallery and is flanked by two trophies from Shovlin’s archives, presented here as sanctified historical objects. They are infused with value through their place within familial and community histories. Their personal significance far outweighs their aesthetic presence and they act as a physical counterpart to the themes within the film.

Made in collaboration with De Montfort University’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture, Subs relates the social value and historical precedents of community activity in the construction of individual, local and national identities. Against the backdrop of the nationwide political upheaval of 2016, the film questions ideas of community through the relationships between parents and players, aspirations and reality and past and present within the club. Subs outlines the psychological and emotional engagement from the Swifts’ players and parents and considers their – and Shovlin’s own – relationship to self, place and history.

Subs has been supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts and The Leverhulme Trust.