Still from Strange Evidence, Michelle Williams Gamaker (2026)

Coming to Glasgow as part of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, Friday 5 June to Sunday 21 June 2026 - Michelle Williams Gamaker’s Strange Evidence (2026) is a genre bending Body Horror/Film Noir, focusing on 1930s screen star Merle Oberon, who kept her mixed Sri Lankan, Indian and British heritage secret to protect her industry status across the British and American Studio systems. Merle falsified her past claiming that she was born in Tasmania to white parents - she passed as white until her death in 1979. Merle maintained strict control of her image; relying on make-up, lighting, dermabrasion and skin-bleaching procedures. Alternating between colour and black and white worlds, Williams Gamaker revisits the cosmetic procedures Merle underwent to maintain this illusion, and speculatively offers the star psychoanalysis to unpack her self-censorship (what the artist calls Fictional Healing). The project sensitively explores racial stigma, trauma and complex decisions shaped by prejudice and restrictive labour conditions, which still impact screen-artists today.