BINGO! About the Exhibition
I was immediately drawn to Beth’s large bingo dabber paintings when I visited her studio in North Shields.
Once she explained the project to be, I knew I wanted to exhibit it at Jackal. I am particularly interested in curating work that explores and highlights working-class experiences, and Beth’s project offered a way to think about class, community and belonging through something so familiar as the game of bingo.
Beginning with a film that gathered memories of lost bingo halls in County Durham, BINGO! considers the people, places and communities connected to a form of social life that is increasingly disappearing.
For the exhibition, I brought together Beth’s bingo paintings, embroidery and film alongside archival material, creating a solo presentation that allowed the different elements of the project to be experienced together.
The paintings were made using bingo dabbers, with the colours selected by chance using a bingo machine. The element of chance became part of the process of making the work, connecting the act of painting back to the mechanics of the game itself.
The exhibition invited visitors to consider bingo not simply as entertainment, but as a social activity with a particular history. In conversations at Jackal, visitors spoke about village halls, family members, bingo callers and memories of places that no longer exist. Very few talked about bingo as a game they play now. Instead, the exhibition became a prompt to reflect on the loss of communal spaces and the relationships that were formed within them.
The work also opened up conversations around class. For many visitors, bingo was closely connected to working-class culture and family history, while others reflected on the ways that their own backgrounds had shaped whether or not they had ever entered these spaces.
The exhibition demonstrated how a familiar subject can open up wider conversations about who has access to particular spaces, how communities are formed, and what happens when the places that bring people together disappear.
Public Programme
The exhibition was accompanied by a sold-out artist talk with Beth J. Ross, offering visitors an opportunity to hear more about the development of the project and the ideas behind the work.
Visitors were also invited to engage directly with bingo materials within the gallery. Bingo cards and dabbers were available for visitors to use, while a collaborative artwork encouraged people to contribute to the exhibition using bingo dabbers.
The intention was to create opportunities for visitors to experience bingo as a social activity rather than simply observe it as a subject within the artworks.
Outcome
BINGO! generated a high level of engagement from visitors, with many spending significant time looking at the work and talking about their own experiences of bingo and community spaces.
The exhibition generated conversations around class, memory, loneliness and the loss of places where people once came together. Visitors shared memories of family members and village halls, while several spoke about bingo as a way of creating social connections.
The intention was to create opportunities for visitors to experience bingo as a social activity rather than simply observe it as a subject within the artworks.