The Cottingley Fairies in Leeds

Opening on April 24th and running until May 21st, 42 New Briggate Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, presents Matter of Fact, the story of the Cottingley Fairies, alongside photography and artworks based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet to accompany Opera North’s Shakespeare Resounding season. Matter of Fact presents photography and installation work exploring our willingness to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good story. Inspired by the enduring relevance and timeless qualities of Shakespeare’s plays, this exhibition takes as its starting point the intriguing relationship between eyewitness account and fiction. Two specially commissioned works by contemporary artists are displayed alongside photographs and documentation from the infamous Cottingley Fairies story, forming an investigation of ideas such as ‘evidence’ and ‘proof’ in art’s attempt to enrich everyday life. The exhibition will display five photographic prints of the Cottingley Fairies alongside drawings and writings by Frances and Elsie. Interviews with the pair nearly 60 years after the original fairy-furore in a spellbinding documentary made for Yorkshire Television’s Calendar News programme in 1973 will also be shown.

Filed under Events |