We Want to Believe in Impossible Things

30 Oct-29 Nov 2025

Doppelgänger (Diptych: Part I & Part II)), 2025, Oil on linen

Overview

British contemporary artist Jess Allen returns to Unit for her second solo exhibition at the London gallery, We Want to Believe in Impossible Things. The enigmatic new series presents her most intimate exploration of her shadow figures to date, situating the psychoanalytic motif upon richly textured fabric backdrops that combine allusions to art history with bold contemporary colours. Amidst their many nuances, her works intentionally resist prescriptive interpretation, instead encouraging personal engagement and reflection on the viewer’s part.

The shadows’ distorted and exaggerated poses (caused by rakish sunlight casting them over their uneven backgrounds) explores body language as a silent mode of communication, revealing how gesture and posture can immediately convey complex emotional states. Through her recurring use of the shadow figure, Allen experiments with a new mode of self-portraiture able to treat the silhouette as a distinct ‘other’ rather than a reflection of the self.