Playing with the Gods

Playing with the Gods is Clare Bottomley’s debut solo exhibition in Finland. This project also marks her initial exploration into the transgressive potential of photographic re-enactment.

In Playing with the Gods, Clare aims to bring the theatrical aesthetics of classical paintings out from the dusty walls of elitist institutions and reinvent them through self-portraiture, creating transgressive, contemporary interpretations of ancient mythologies. By juxtaposing the moralistic undertones of these ancient tales with the complexities, failures, and uncertainties of contemporary life, Clare hopes to provoke reflection on how many of our values, principles, and beliefs may still be rooted in outdated tales.

Clare’s self-portraits offer a layered visual ‘re-turning’: a re-imagining of classical paintings, which are dominant visual symbols within Western culture, blended with playful re-enactments of vignettes from her own life. These scenes, both deeply personal and universally relatable, capture the messy and sometimes chaotic realities of everyday life.

The photographic works are installed in a gallery setting that mimics the atmosphere of traditional, formal museums—spaces typically associated with the classical artworks Clare’s re-enactments reference. This setup challenges the often stuffy, unapproachable atmosphere of cultural institutions, suggesting that the everyday lives of everyday people deserve a place on museum and gallery walls everywhere.

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