LONDON.- This summer, Somerset House presents HOLY POP!, an exhibition celebrating the world of modern shrines — the objects and collections through which we honour heroes, celebrities, and cult icons. Featuring art, memorabilia and photographs, HOLY POP! will uncover how community is created through the ritual idolisation of celebrities in an increasingly secular and individualistic society. Works in the show feature celebrities and figures such as David Bowie, Princess Diana, Andy Warhol and Harry Potter’s Dobby the Elf. In a fast-moving digital world, HOLY POP! offers a vibrant, thought-provoking celebration of human connection, devotion, and the objects that bring us together.
Set across three rooms at Somerset House, HOLY POP! reveals the power of these personal and collective shrines to offer comfort, connection, and belonging. Visitors will discover the intimate ways people express admiration, empathy, and solidarity to those they feel a spiritual connection to, while exploring the broader social forces behind our fascination with pop culture.
The exhibition will start with the examination of the deeply personal nature of devotion, before exploring the act of communal mourning and how people come together in moments of grief to share memories and commemorate their heroes. It will then move on to personal shrines, and how carefully placed objects in the intimacy of our homes hold a precious personal significance, creating everyday spaces for reflection.
The conclusion of the exhibition will be dedicated to Nina Simone’s chewing gum, an artefact collected by musician Warren Ellis after experiencing her last UK concert and being in awe of her performance. The gum subsequently informed the title and basis of his 2021 memoir, Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found. The chewing gum turned relic is the perfect example of artistic devotion and the personal value added to everyday objects.
The exhibition is curated by Tory Turk, an independent curator specialising in subcultures and popular culture, supported by Somerset House’s Senior Curator Claire Catterall. HOLY POP! marks a return to Somerset House for Turk, having curated No Comply in 2021 and co-curated The Jam: About the Young Idea in 2015.
Tory Turk, Curator of HOLY POP! said: “HOLY POP! is a dialogue between people and the objects they treasure; the mementos they gather on the fridge; the flowers, notes and offerings they leave at famous people’s graves. It’s about the community created when fans build their own memorials to their heroes and the affinity felt between strangers because they idolise the same pop star, devour the same literature, or worship the same actor.
“Regardless of your religion, faith always comes from the heart. Somerset House, a building with a rich history and reborn today as an arts organisation showcasing arts and popular culture is the perfect venue for this contemporary exploration of devotion. HOLY POP! is about our very human desire to believe in something bigger, because that is what makes us feel alive.”
HOLY POP! will feature as part of Somerset House’s summer offering. Also presented will be Somerset House Summer Series with American Express, returning this July for an electrifying edition of the essential live music festival. Taking place across 11 nights in the spectacular surroundings of Somerset House’s neoclassical open-air courtyard, this year’s edition will include intimate performances from artists including The Flaming Lips, Black Country New Road, Agnes Obel, and Raf Saperra.
