Alexandra Metcalf at The Perimeter
Walking through the high-ceilinged halls of The Perimeter in Bloomsbury, where natural light spills across bare walls and polished floors, you might not expect to stumble across something so disturbing and intimate. Gaaaaaaasp is London-born artist Alexandra Metcalf's first solo institutional exhibition, turning the gallery's four floors into a disorienting world of 1960s patterns and clinical sterility, brought together under themes of domestic and gendered labour.
In the first room, the ceiling drops oppressively low beneath the flicker of harsh office lights. The walls are covered in 1970s vintage wallpaper; a dull, yellowed floral that seems steeped in years of cigarette smoke. The carpet is a muted, corporate grey-blue and chairs line the edges of the room. A muffled dialogue loops continuously from a TV screen mounted high in the corner, playing recordings from the artist's own visits to abortion clinics and therapy sessions over the years. The space recalls a clinical waiting area, but it also suggests something more metaphysical: a kind of purgatory, where time is suspended, judgment is quietly present and trauma lingers.
In Gaaaaaaasp, the domestic is destabilised. On the top floor, an open trunk has enormous needles piercing its lining like weapons. Another room is configured as a hospital unit, with two 1960s nightstands with bed springs erupting from vintage trunks lit by collapsing surgical lights. The floor is covered in faded pink linoleum, the colour of a pediatric ward or nursery; except here, the hues tip into psychedelia, turning the space into something dissociative and quietly menacing. Meanwhile, a standout painting, I AM MY OWN RIOT & BEST FRIEND (2025), stretches five metres across one gallery wall: a densely layered work with paper cut-outs sealed with wax and female figures in ambiguous poses.
What makes Gaaaaaaasp so powerful is its excavation of the long, gendered history of psychiatric containment. In Victorian Britain, women were routinely institutionalised for hysteria and postnatal depression; their lives confined to a world of needlework, ornament and quiet suffering. Metcalf's environments echo this. Her use of marbling, stitching and soft furnishings reference these sanctioned forms of feminine expression, while also exposing their limitations. These were the materials women were allowed to work with, even as their bodies and minds were surveilled and controlled.
Yet within these constraints, Metcalf finds rebellion. Her camp aesthetic, theatrical excess and jarring use of colour transform repression into performance. The show's title lands somewhere between a scream and a laugh: a bodily release that is at once absurd, tragic and liberating.
This exhibition feels acutely timely. As conversations around bodily autonomy, particularly abortion rights and mental health, are especially politically charged, Gaaaaaaasp reminds us that these debates are not new. They are part of a much longer history of how women's bodies have been monitored and medicalised.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Glasgow Times
6 days ago
- Glasgow Times
Singer-songwriter Admt coming to King Tut's in Glasgow
Admt, known for songs like Best Friend and Without You, will perform at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in the city centre. The gig will take place on Tuesday, October 14, and comes as part of his UK and Europe 2025 tour. READ NEXT: 'Glasgow is great': Fleetwood Mac tribute act to rock city show this summer The news follows the release of Admt's new single, Come Along, which came out in May of this year. The singer, who hails from Doncaster, first rose to fame after building a large social media following after the release of his tune, North. He used to be a fishmonger on Doncaster market. READ NEXT: Irish indie rock band announce Glasgow show as part of UK tour Tickets for the upcoming gig will go live at 10am on June 20. To purchase tickets, visit
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Daily Mail
I was devastated to discover I wasn't on a secret WhatsApp group. Here's the controversial method I used to work out who my REAL friends are: FLORA GILL
If you're Lily Allen 's friend and haven't heard from her in a while, you may be wondering where you rank on the pop star's list of friends. This isn't a theoretical ranking; it turns out the singer has a list of friends 'in order of how much I like them', so her assistant can use the data to appropriately organise catch-ups. God forbid she organise a one-to-one with a 12th-place mate. Ranking your friends may sound cut-throat, but the truth is it's something we're all encouraged to do from that first moment your primary school teacher calls out 'Everyone get into pairs!' and true allegiances are revealed. There was always that devastating moment when a tripod friendship was forced to fracture and someone found out they were the spare part. Girls in particular are repeatedly told we need a 'best friend'. But not everyone can be your best friend, so the potential for emotional turmoil and toxicity is high. As a child, I was given one of those ubiquitous best friend necklaces by my parents for Christmas. The idea was that I would wear one half and give the other to my best friend. The only issue was that I didn't have a best friend. So I wore the half-heart necklace that read 'BE FRI' and hid the other in a drawer, telling everyone at school they just didn't know my secret bestie who lived in another country, proudly sporting her 'ST END' necklace. I looked at the other girls in my class wearing their matching jewellery and felt jealous, sad and lonely. Why was I not good enough to be anyone's number one? Yet one of the most scarring friendship rites of passage for my generation came in the brutal form of the MySpace 'Top 8'. For anyone lucky enough to have missed this horror show, MySpace is the social media website that predated Facebook. As well as collecting online 'friends', you had to publicly rank your top eight friends on your profile. Who you picked was a diplomatic minefield capable of shattering friendships – and fragile teen hearts – as your social standing was brought into harsh focus. Nothing was more humiliating than putting someone into your top friends, only to realise they hadn't reciprocated. A reshuffle – something that happened constantly as fickle teen friendships shifted from day to day – would often involve a sudden phone call from a friend incredulous at having been usurped from their spot, followed by a negotiation for their reinstatement. We'd like to pretend that such behaviour stops when we leave school, but we all know that's not the case. If anything, friendship slights hurt more in adulthood when 'groups' become weaker without the glue of everyday classes, and making new connections becomes harder. Now, there's the secret side chats of WhatsApp groups (I once found out some friends of mine had one I was excluded from and made them immediately delete it). Or discovering someone has a 'close friend' list on their Instagram stories . . . and you're not in it. Nothing makes the ranking of your 'best friends' clearer than a wedding. The process of deciding who gets to be among your bridesmaids or groomsmen is the adult equivalent of MySpace Top 8. Many a friendship has ended over who was, or wasn't, granted this honour. I've been to a wedding where there were 15 bridesmaids in matching outfits so that the bride wasn't forced to choose between her friends. At my own wedding last summer I just had a maid of honour (I did eventually find a best friend) but forwent bridesmaids to avoid any drama. But, most of the time, we rank our friends in secret. Which is how, like Lily Allen, a few years ago I came to compile a spreadsheet where I scored my own friends. I too found it quite helpful to ensure I met up with the friends I valued most, and realised who I'd grown distant from. Points were awarded for their level of fun and uniqueness but docked for consistently turning up late or not reciprocating invitations. But the thing about friendships is they're constantly in flux – and the friendships that last the longest aren't necessarily the ones you'll need in a given moment. On that original list I had a brutal one point deduction for new parents, as our priorities weren't aligned. But now, as a new mother myself, if I were to resurrect my spreadsheet a fellow new parent would earn an extra point - I need people who won't be bored to death by conversation of wake windows and weaning techniques. So while I applaud Lily's list, I just hope she realises it needs to be constantly reshuffled. Maybe MySpace, emotionally fraught as it was, was on to something after all.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Block star-turned-sex worker Suzi Taylor shocks followers as she shares eye-popping lingerie photos - after being granted bail amid drug-trafficking charges
Former reality TV star Suzi Taylor stunned followers on Friday when she posed in very racy white lingerie for a series of jaw-dropping selfies. The Block star, 53, who was previously revealed in court to now be a sex worker, uploaded the shock images to Instagram as she struck a sultry pose while sprawled across a bed. Opting for a glamorous makeup look, Suzi fanned her dark tresses out around her as she contorted her figure and highlighted her chest in the images. The lacy frock she wore left very little to the imagination as it featured sheer panels and a plunging neckline. 'I just want to be one of your girls tonight,' Suzi wrote next to the racy reel, including '#lovehim' and '#king' in the caption. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. It comes after Suzi made a surprise return to social media after she was granted bail while facing drug-trafficking charges. She took to Instagram this week to share a photo of herself posing for a selfie with her 'best friend' and 'saviour' who has helped her through her darkest times. 'I have had my best friend walk beside me thru every storm never leaving my side,' she captioned the post alongside her pet dog. 'My brave little companion has shown more courage loyalty & love than I could ever imagine.' Suzi looked happy and relaxed following a beach-side stroll, posing alongside her beloved dog on the sand. Suzi recently faced a Brisbane court over a bizarre 'honey trap' kidnapping, the details of which had the whole television industry aghast. The former reality star and her co-accused Ali Ebrahimi were eventually cleared on all charges, including extortion, deprivation of liberty, fraud and assault, and we do not suggest either of them committed a crime. But the accusations were alarming, drawing attention to the fact Suzi, just five years after her sudden rise to fame, was clearly a troubled woman earning a living as a sex worker. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Suzi Taylor (@suzitaylorofficial) That was 2020 - now it's 2025 and she continues to face legal troubles. In March, she pleaded guilty to charges of trespassing, stealing and common assault but escaped jail and only had to pay a fine. She had forced entry into a home the previous October, demanding property from someone who was no longer living there. She pushed a woman and then fled on an e-scooter with a shopping bag full of stolen goods. At the time, Suzi had just been released from prison where she'd served 50 days for evading police. She is currently on bail facing drug-trafficking charges and only recently had another conviction for meth possession added to her rap sheet. The last time Suzi had lucidly opened up about her personal life was in her final social media post for 2024 in which she revealed she was estranged from her three children, aged in their teens and twenties. She said her downfall had forced her to redefine what family is, and expressed hope for a more positive 2025. But fate had different plans for her. Taking to Instagram at the time, the former Block star revealed she is still estranged from her three children Bella, 20, Zac, 18, and Alex, 16, following 'years' of legal woes. Posting a selfie to her followers, Suzi shared the past few years, which have seen her mired in legal woes, had taught her a 'heartbreaking lesson'. 'The past few years have been filled with heartbreak. Losing loved ones, the absence of my children in my life,' she began the expansive post. She claimed family members had cut ties with her due to exaggerated media reports without 'ever seeking to understand the truth'. 'This experience has been a heartbreaking lesson in the meaning of family and unconditional love,' she wrote. The candid post continued with Suzi admitting the situation had forced her to redefine what family is. 'Even in the midst of such profound loss and isolation, I have found resilience,' Suzi said. 'I have learned that family isn't always defined by blood; it can be the unexpected souls who step in during our darkest moments.' Finishing the expansive post, Suzi said she was hopeful for a more positive 2025. 'As we enter 2025, I carry with me the lessons of the past and the hope for brighter days ahead,' she said. 'Here's to healing, new connections, and redefining what family means. May this year bring us all the strength to embrace the love that truly matters. #newbeginnings.'
