Contagious Acts interrogates the heritage, rituals and aesthetics of gathering; whether on the medieval battlefield, the dance floor, the factory floor, or the football stadium.

These spaces remain battlegrounds of power and protest while also functioning as sites of cultural production and resistance.

Drawing from an unlikely collision of cultural references, in Contagious Acts, Holman seamlessly bridges medieval art history with contemporary iconography, where record sleeves and song titles hold equal significance to illuminated manuscripts, tapestry, and post-Reformation painting. Holman explores the intertwined histories of class, governance, and the politics of collective gatherings—across the two fundamental spheres of working-class experience: Labour and Leisure or Work and Play.

Holman proposes that the act of coming together—whether in celebration, dissent, or tradition—is deeply political, inextricably tied to class, identity, and belonging, revealing what he describes as Britain’s ongoing crisis of identity.

Commissioned by The Whitaker & The Second Act, funded by Arts Council England curated by Alex Zawadzki.