Viewing HOLY POP!

The cult of celebrity.

At Somerset House this summer, fandom is given the full devotional treatment with HOLY POP!, a Pay What You Can exhibition taking over the Terrace Rooms.

Curated by Tory Turk, with Somerset House Senior Curator Claire Catterall, this unique new show is flooding our feeds and minds as it explores the idea of shrines and relics – who or what deserves our devotion in an era of celebrity and technology?

Through art, memorabilia, photographs, letters, objects and personal collections, HOLY POP! shifts between the intimate and the collective. From David Bowie, Britney Spears, Aaliyah, Prince and George Michael to Princess Diana, Andy Warhol and Dobby the Elf, the show explores why some figures come to mean far more to us than celebrity alone and start to hold a place of homage in our lives.

Set across three rooms, HOLY POP! takes you on a journey through the different ways we express our admiration. Notes, offerings, treasured objects and fan-made tributes become evidence of feeling, showing how fandom can offer comfort, connection and a sense of something larger than ourselves. Meander through ‘The Personal Spark’, which explores the deeply intimate nature of devotion and what draws us to the figures we idolise, and ‘Communal Mourning’, showing how strangers come together in moments of grief to share memories and commemorate public figures.

The show’s final room centres on Nina Simone’s chewing gum, collected by musician Warren Ellis after her final UK concert and later the subject of his memoir, Nina Simone’s Gum. Strange and intimate, it captures the exhibition’s central charge: how everyday objects can become sacred when touched by feeling.

Essential viewing.