Solo exhibition as part of E17 Art Trail 2024

Liquors. Potions. Philtres. Lotions. Roll up, roll up for an installation of elixir bottles and curios, by illustrator and artist Emma Russell, accompanied by a collection of new prints.
Why are we seduced by promises from uncertain sources? What if a little magic really could change the world?

 The travelling medicine show, popular in the Victorian era, was a sideshow entertainment by purveyors of ineffective patent medicines, often accompanied by circus-style entertainments to draw a crowd. This small show is an exploration of the contradiction between dangerous falsehoods, the seductiveness of bewitching entertainments and the wish for possible change. I’ve spent my adult life skating a line between the desire to believe in magic and transformation, and the realism of rationality.