Lineker inspired 'gaslighting' exhibition opens at Arts Centre Washington

The exhibition, by artistic collective Sunderland Indie, features paintings and installations from 12 artists, each with their own interpretation of gaslighting.

The idea for the exhibition was first suggested last year, but the furore in March around “the BBC’s attempts to control the social media output of Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker” was the final prompt.

Lineker was taken off air after Tweeting about immigration policy. The decision, later revoked, exploded into a national debate about impartiality.

Artist Barrie West, founder of Sunderland Indie, has two pieces in the exhibition. One, Dancing in Guyana, echoes the tragedy of The Jonestown Massacre, when Rev Jim Jones manipulated and coerced the suicides and murders of more than 900 of his followers in November 1978.

Barrie explained: “Gaslighting is a way of psychologically changing someone’s point of view. It’s manipulation through often subtle ways and signs; and it’s really about power.”

“The decision to try and silence Lineker was a classic example of gaslighting and as an artistic collective we wanted to respond to that.”

A powerful piece in the exhibition is Angela Sandwith and about the infamous Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. The work is created from stainless steel and reflects the shapeless clothes the women and girls, forcefully kept in the laundries, were forced to wear.

Angela explained: “I did a lot of research into the laundries a few years ago, but found it so harrowing. I went back to the work for this exhibition.

“Originally the laundries were places for prostitutes or women who had no other way of surviving.

“But that changed and they became places unmarried mothers or women deemed troublemakers in their communities were sent to. There were even examples of women who were thought disruptive because they were too attractive being sent to these places.”

There will be a special Gaslist exhibition celebration event which will run alongside a Washington, Fact, Fiction and Folklore event on Wednesday, October 18.

The free exhibition, is in ACW’s Granary Gallery until November 11 and is the first exhibition to be held in the renovated and enlarged Granary Gallery. Visit www.artscentrewashington.co.uk for more details.