Who is King? And What Do I Know?

Gill Allderman

Mezzanine Gallery: 20.11.25 - 15.01.26

Gill Allderman’s work exists in the quiet space between reverence and questioning. Through materials marked by use, Hessian burlap sacks, cloth and paper, she creates layered reflections on labour, belonging, and value. These materials, once carriers of goods from the earth, still hold traces of their journey. Allderman transforms these modest burlap sacks into meditations on power and invisibility.

“My work begins with the material itself. I use humble, often discarded objects, hessian burlap sacks, cloth, paper - materials that carry traces of labour and time. These sacks, once used to transport goods from the land, have passed through countless hands. They are marked with the word manufactured, yet they hold within them the weight of human effort, the unseen histories of those who dig, lift, and carry the wealth of the earth.

In this body of work, Who is King? And What Do I Know? I aim to honour these unsung narratives. I stretch and paint the sacks, leaving parts raw and open, so that they still hold the sense of what they once carried - coal, gold, copper, grain. Onto some I stitch ghostly figures, almost defunct Kings and Queens - symbols of power and privilege, those who watch from their cars as others labour in the fields. The juxtaposition between the raw sack and the embroidered figure becomes a quiet reflection on value: what is elevated, what is discarded, and who decides.

This exploration continues the thread of my previous work, Where Strangers Meet in Water, which considered those who cross borders in search of safety or opportunity. Their journeys are similarly marked by endurance, and their labour is absorbed into systems that rarely acknowledge them.

I approach these themes with humility and reflection. Being part of a generation shaped by histories of privilege and separation, my work seeks to navigate that legacy with honesty. I aim not to speak for others, but to hold space - to recognise the weight of what has been overlooked, and to reimagine the materials of work and migration as carriers of meaning and memory.

My practice exists between reverence and questioning: between the worn threads of a sack and the shimmer of a gold leaf; between those who labour and those who inherit; between what we know, and what we choose not to see.”

Association for Visual Arts .