Gastromancy: Solo Exhibition, LifeSpace, University of Dundee

Exhibition Venue: LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Old Hawkhill Road, University of Dundee
Exhibition Dates: 9th October 2024 - 30th November 2024

Gastromancy is a new exhibition of works by Katherine Fay Allan, supported by Creative Scotland and the University of Dundee. Featuring film, audio, performance and sculptural works, this body of work considers how we can listen to our bodies to predict the future.

Rooted in the experience of living with an undiagnosed illness that manifested as debilitating pain and gastrointestinal disorders, Gastromancy is a new exhibition of works by artist Katherine Fay Allan that invites us to turn inwards and listen to our gut.

This project holds a significant connection to Scotland and its people. In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in gastrointestinal conditions in the Lothians alone, a bitesize statistic of one of the world’s highest prevalences of gut disease. Gastromancy rises to meet this issue from a Scottish cultural perspective, leaning into our long history of fae mythology as a domain to examine illness and disability.

Drawing parallels between patient symptom reporting and oral folkloric storytelling, Gastromancy likens the lengthy experience of seeking a medical diagnosis for chronic conditions to being haunted by the supernatural; specifically, the intense longing to be ‘believed’ by another.

Featuring film, audio, performance, and sculptural works, Gastromancy provides a sensory passage into a world where our gut tissues and gut feeling are reimagined as characters with a story to tell; seeping into realms of animism, otherness, divination, and mystification.

Visual and audio compositions featured in this work have developed as a direct response to research being conducted in the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences on the gastrointestinal system; specifically medical imaging of the gut organs, the nature of epithelial cells as well as the curious method of ‘organoid technology’.

This absorption of both scientific material and folkloric imagery seeks alternative ways to convey embodied experiences from an ecofeminist perspective. Gastromancy draws our attention to the importance of patient stories and the validity of their descriptions while offering new ways to visualise our gut physiology and consider what future we may uncover by listening to our bodies.