Exhibit: I Wasn't Expecting a Visitor Today
Exhibited originally in person on 20/2/26 in Glasgow
This exhibition is about the gap between what we post online and what we live.
Some of these images are the ones you show people. The nice light. The clean frame. The version of yourself that feels acceptable.
The others are the photos you would never upload. The kitchen after the day has happened. The mess that builds up quietly. The corners of the house you crop out before you hit share.
I originally wanted to photograph lots of people’s homes, using the space as a way into mental health. Then I realised it was asking for a level of honesty I wasn’t sure I had the right to take.
So I put myself under the microscope instead.
Alongside the photographs are highlighted excerpts from my ADHD assessment report. Clinical language. Observations. Things I recognise instantly, but have spent years trying to hide in plain sight.
There’s a bit of a Where’s Wally to it. You can scan the room and spot the clues. The unfinished jobs. The workarounds. The patterns. The chaos and the control. The reality behind the version that makes it online.
The strings act like visible thoughts. Lines between moments. Associations that make sense to me before they make sense to anyone else. One image pulling on another. That is the rhythm of my brain. You can follow them or totally ignore them. That I leave to you.
Because we don’t post our real lives.
We post what we can bear to be seen. I want to keep this vague and let viewers come to their own conclusions
