Exhibition: Call it a day

Call it a day

‘Call it a day’ is a group exhibition with works by Sophie Hall, Jim Brook and Alex of Folly Problem. The exhibition explores time, authorship, labour and our relationship to work. Through astral projection, the aisles of B&Q, and tribute acts, ‘Call it a day’ is a sigh of both satisfaction and discontent.

~

If you asked me to name a painter when I was younger I would have probably said L.S. Lowry. We used to sing the song ‘Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs’ at school so his name came up quite a lot. My grandma had a print of ‘Coming from the mill (1933)’ hanging above her bed. It was the only piece of art I really remember being in her home. She started working in the mills when she was probably still a child as a twister but then got a job at fox’s biscuits and worked there as a packer until retirement.

I have always liked that painting. In this hazy in between, neither work nor rest, the commute. The posture of all the people as they lean in. The chimneys in the background which paint all the houses black. The two little children who look out over the grass.

Images of labour looming over us while we slept. Waiting for the alarm to alert tired eyes. To down tools and call it a day.

Alice Disken

~

Jim Brook (b. 1995, Dewsbury, UK) is an artist based in West Yorkshire. He received his Master of Arts from Leeds Arts University in 2020, following the completion of his undergraduate studies at the same institution in 2018. Brook’s interdisciplinary practice spans a variety of media, including the ready-made, sculpture, photography, and textiles, through which he critically engages with themes of masculinity, identity, class, home, and folk culture. Central to his work is a reflection on his personal lived experience, utilizing both object-based and conceptual methodologies to interrogate the complexities of these intersecting socio-cultural issues.

Brook’s practice is deeply concerned with the exploration of identity within the context of working-class heritage, drawing on the symbolic and material associations of everyday objects and vernacular forms. Through this, he examines how these elements resonate within broader narratives of cultural memory, class structures, and the construction of masculinity. His work invites critical engagement with the ways in which personal history and collective experience shape notions of selfhood and belonging.

Sophie Hall is an Edinburgh based visual artist. She completed a Masters in Contemporary Art Practice at Edinburgh College of Art in 2024 having previously studied Illustration at Kingston University. She was the recipient of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Graduate Award in 2024, taking part in a three month long residency and exhibition GRUB the following year. Recent shows include No One Thinks You’re Weird at Whitespace Gallery, Thrills at Embassy Gallery and Rogue Trader at Concrete Block Gallery – both curated by Votive Gallery – and is currently completing a Learning Assistant traineeship at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

Sophie’s practice explores how we process and interpret the visual world around us, exploiting the ways in which our brains make sense of perceptually unstable and challenging information. Her work often includes elements of trompe l’oeil – temporarily deceiving the viewer before unravelling into ambiguity. Hall primarily works with found materials, transforming discarded fragments into temporary sculptural compositions that bear witness to their previous contexts and playfully construct new points of view, collapsing boundaries between image and object.

Folly Problem turns normal life strange by finding connections to concepts strange, forgotten or unintended. From zines on sewer wordplay and apocalypses in car adverts to readings of life stories hidden in frozen pea reviews. Folly Problem is also a writer and artist called Alex, he’s local to Edinburgh.

All photography by Jules Lacave-Fontourcy.