Strange Evidence

Michelle Williams Gamaker

Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

5-21 June 2026

Coming to Offline 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 British/Hollywood screen star Merle Oberon, who kept her mixed Sri Lankan, Indian and British heritage secret to protect her industry status. She passed as white until her death in 1979. As a contracted star for Alexander Korda’s London Films, Merle was the so-called resident “exotic” playing stereotypical roles. To transition to leading roles, Merle falsified her past claiming that she was born in Tasmania to white parents. Behind the scenes, 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, still impacting performers today. 

Strange Evidence (2026)forms the first part of Williams Gamaker's new phase in Fictional Healing, following her series in Fictional Activism and Fictional Revenge. It also completes her Critical Affection trilogy (2021–2026), including The Bang Straws (2021) and Thieves (2023).