Subjects of State, Labours of Love is a two-chapter film by artist filmmaker Rhea Storr.
Shot on 16mm film, Subjects of State, Labours of Love presents an intimate portrait of Caribbean Associations in 1980’s Wolverhampton, and present-day Sheffield African and Caribbean Community Association, SADACCA.
Presented as an immersive multi-channel video installation and exhibition at Site Gallery, this body of work captures the shared joys, celebrations, struggles, oppressions and complexities experienced by Caribbean heritage communities.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Site Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. The commission and its acquisition by Wolverhampton Art Gallery are made possible with Art Fund support. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Free Entry
Access Information
We run a Relaxed Viewing Hour between 11am – 12pm every Thursday. These hours provide brighter natural lighting and quieter sound.
Children’s and adult’s ear defenders are available by the main gallery door. Hearing loops are available at reception.
Large-print versions of the exhibition handout and coloured overlays are available by the gallery door.
Subjects of State, Labours of Love is in Site Gallery’s main exhibition space, on the ground floor. There are accessible, gender-neutral toilets and baby changing facilities on the same floor.
Images: Rhea Storr, Subjects of State, Labours of Love production still (2024).
Artists
Rhea Storr
Rhea Storr is an artist filmmaker who explores the representation of Black and mixed-race cultures. Masquerade as a site of protest or subversion is an ongoing theme in her work. So too, is the effect of place or space on cultural representation. On occasion she draws on her own rural upbringing and British Bahamian heritage. Rhea Storr often works in 16mm film; she considers that analogue film might be useful to Black artists, both in the aesthetics it creates and the production models it facilitates. She is currently undertaking a PhD entitled ‘Towards a Black British Aesthetic: How is Black Radical Imagination realised through 16mm filmmaking practices?’ She is a co-director of not nowhere an artists’ film co-operative, London, that has a particular focus on analogue film. She is resident at Somerset House, London and occaisionally programs at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival. She is the winner of the Aesthetica Art Prize 2020 and the inaugural Louis Le Prince Experimental Film Prize. She was educated at Oxford University and the Royal College of Art.