As demand for nostalgic collectables continues to grow, Fake Fans explores the world of bootleg and fan-made objects associated with fandoms.
Fake Fans is an exhibition by artist George Gibson in collaboration with Site Gallery’s youth collectives Society of Explorers and Creative Producers.
The exhibition explores the subculture of bootlegs, fan-made artefacts, and counterfeit memorabilia – unofficial objects that orbit around the things we love. Rather than framing the act of bootlegging as derivative or illicit, Fake Fans presents it as an act of creative resistance and reworlding.
Central to the exhibition is Fake Fans: The Movie, a newly commissioned pixel-art film animated by artist and game developer Pastel Castle. The film explores the world of bootleg trading cards, using similar visual language to original Game Boy games. Alongside it are a series of unofficial interactive games that remix familiar franchises into chaotic new narratives.
Fake Fans also includes zines, fan art, found images, reimagined hand-painted figurines and a series of playtest trading cards, created in workshops at Site Gallery.
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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.