The Isles of Many Gods

The Isles of Many Gods is a major group exhibition made in response to the rise of anti-migrant hostility and racialised violence. Focused on artists based in the UK, the exhibition proposes art and collective imagination as forces for consciousness-raising, solidarity and social change. Through mythologies, world-building and talismans – bound with critical examinations of the histories, processes and institutions that have sown division and spread reductive notions of national identity – the artists celebrate alternative identities and new communities. Borrowing its title from a study of the many gods worshipped in what we now call the UK, from ancient to medieval times, the exhibition channels the long-term flux, diversity and hybridity that has shaped and coexisted on these islands. Revealing the UK as a place continually transformed through exchange and cultural encounter, The Isles of Many Gods invites audiences to imagine a more inclusive future grounded in shared histories, collective possibility and belonging.