As demand for nostalgic collectables continues to grow, Fake Fans explores the world of bootleg and fan-made objects associated with fandoms.
For their first solo exhibition, artist George Gibson explores the fleeting visual languages of bootlegs, counterfeits, and pirated merchandise – the unofficial objects that orbit around the things we love.
How do the items we collect bring us closer to our obsessions?
Can unlicensed objects carry the same emotional weight as official ones?
Can they generate a meaning all of their own?
At the heart of the exhibition is a newly commissioned pixel-art animated film, created in collaboration with artist and game developer Pastel Castle (Emily Garner) that delves into the subculture of fake trading cards. Alongside it, a selection of homebrew computer games – unofficial remixes of familiar franchises – take well-known characters and drop them into alternate, often chaotic, storylines.
Working with Site Gallery’s youth collective, the Society of Explorers, Gibson will also create a brand new series of trading cards, a new kind of collectable made especially for the exhibition. These will be displayed alongside fan productions like zines, fan art, found-image compilations, and hand-painted figurines – each one not just a duplication, but a reimagining shaped by hyperfixation.
With thanks to funding from The Foyle Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, JG Graves Charitable Trust and Arts Council England.
Artists
George Gibson is an artist and educator, based in the North West UK, with a practice that explores zinemaking, lo-fi print processes, and book arts as a means to documenting personal fixations and the communities they create.
Collaboration is central to their work, often connecting with artists, writers and researchers who are interested in the same niche, or producing work within an open workshop setting. Through these collaborations, Gibson has explored themes of cultural memory, fandom, and unofficial histories – from cryptozoology and queer retellings of Godzilla, to the history of bootleg Pokémon and the psychological impact of early 2000s TV phenomena LOST.