A dimly lit room with two empty chairs faces a projected film image of an older black woman in a white head wrap and red clothing. The screen shows English subtitles reading, “turn away from the sun,” against a reddish background.

Shamica Ruddock in conversation with Michelle Williams Gamaker

Artist-filmmakers Shamica Ruddock and Michelle Williams Gamaker will take part in a conversation around the context and ideas behind their recent works. 

Ruddock’s 16mm film Knock Down Pork Knocker was exhibited as part of the artist’s Studio Voltaire exhibition earlier this year. Set against the backdrop of Guyana’s mining history, the work examines the intersection of Caribbean folklore with the lasting spiritual, material and labour legacies of resource extraction following British colonial rule. 

Ruddock’s practice explores Afro-Caribbean orality, puppetry, masquerade and folk storytelling practices, alongside speculative fictions and futurisms across a body of sound, installation and moving-image work. 

Williams Gamaker’s practice explores the fiction-making machine of 20th-century British and Hollywood studio films by restaging sequences to reveal cinematic construction and recasting characters to propose alternative endings that counter their often doom-laden plight, through her process of Fictional Activism.

Taking Knock Down Pork Knocker as a starting point, Ruddock and Williams Gamaker will explore their approaches to storytelling and historical research in their moving image works. The pair will discuss their wider practices across sound and moving image, and explore how these media can serve as a site for knowledge production. The event will conclude with an opportunity for audience questions and discussion.

  1. Shamica Ruddock (b. 1992, London) has previously held residencies with Brussels experimental sound lab QO2 and Amant Foundation, New York. Solo shows include Deciphering a Broken Syntax, South London Gallery, London, UK (2022) and Palimpsests & Epithets Skēnē, Malmö, Sweden (2024). Solo live performances include ArtHouse Jersey, UK, (2025), Cafe OTO, London, UK (2024) and Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus, Sweden; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, UK, (2024), Festival presentations include Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK (2023) and Timehri Film Festival, Guyana, (2023); Fellowships include the British Library Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship and the FLAMIN Fellowship. Ruddock is currently a Sound and Music In-Motion composer.

  2. Michelle Williams Gamaker (b. 1979, London) is an artist filmmaker working with performance and installation, often in dialogue with film history.  She is the winner of Film London’s Jarman Award (2020) and exhibits her films nationally and internationally, including BFI Flare, London (2017) BFI London Film Festival (2018, 2021), Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Leeds (winner of Best Experimental Film 2021, 2023), Sharjah Film Platform 6 (2023). In 2022, she was part of Whitechapel’s The London Open triennial and in 2023, she had a major institutional solo, Our Mountains are Painted on Glass at South London Gallery. The show toured to Dundee Contemporary Arts and Bluecoat, Liverpool (2024). In 2023, BFI commissioned Oberon (2023) as part of their Red Shoes: Beyond the Mirror exhibition for the Powell and Pressburger Season.

    Williams Gamaker is represented by Matt’s Gallery, where she also presented her exhibition Strange Evidence, which tours to The MAC, Belfast, Glasgow International and Chapter, Cardiff, in 2026. Her films are distributed by LUX, and her entire filmography is part of the BFI’s National Collection in 2026, with works also in the Arts Council Collection.

    Williams Gamaker is Professor of BA Fine, Goldsmiths and programme leader for A Particular Reality and a British Academy Wolfson Fellow (2022–25). She is a studio artist at Gasworks, London, where she is also a trustee.

  3. This event will be seated. If you have any questions or need assistance with your visit, please feel welcome to contact us at +44 (0) 20 7622 1294 or access@studiovoltaire.org. Read Studio Voltaire's full access information here.

  4. Images 1-2: Shamica Ruddock, The River Between, 2026. Installation view at Studio Voltaire, 2026. Images courtesy of the artist and Studio Voltaire. Photo: Tom Carter.

Standard tickets £5, concessions available

Wednesday 24 June 2026, 7–8 pm

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A dimly lit room with two empty chairs faces a projected film image of an older black woman in a white head wrap and red clothing. The screen shows English subtitles reading, “turn away from the sun,” against a reddish background.

Shamica Ruddock
The River Between

Exhibition
A person in a colourful jester costume with a red and black hood stands on a wooden path, arms crossed. The background features tall green grass and wildflowers, creating a natural and slightly overgrown setting.

Artists' Talks: Shamica Ruddock

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