Secondhand Smoke

Ruthella Dafnis brings her solo exhibition Secondhand Smoke to the In Vitro Gallery at Summerhall from 17 to 22 November, as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. The title comes from something that lingers long after it's gone, and that's exactly what the show is about: grief, memory and addiction in the wake of the recent loss of her father.

Inside the gallery, that grief is treated as a residue carried by objects, domestic interiors and the body. Dafnis works with immersive installations and sculptures made from prismatic materials, and the work returns to the brief time she spent with her father and the partial estrangement between them. It's a space that makes room for narratives shaped by class, care and survival.

Dafnis herself was born in Blackburn in 2001 and is now based in Leith. She works across installation, sculpture, archives and layered imagery, creating spaces where working-class culture, care experience, homelessness, grief and emotional inheritance surface together. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in Intermedia Art in 2025, and this show forms part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival at Summerhall.

Secondhand Smoke runs from 17 to 22 November, open 11am to 5pm, with a private view on 16 November from 6pm to 8pm. Entry is free. You'll find it in the In Vitro Gallery, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL.