The hidden histories beneath a familiar pleasure

London, 2026: Bompas & Parr presents Fancy Ices at Woodward Henry, the studio’s gallery for immersive exhibitions. Taking its title from Agnes Bertha Marshall’s influential 1894 book, the exhibition traces ice cream from elaborate Victorian table centrepieces and perilous penny portions to supermarket freezers, seaside holidays and the familiar call of the ice-cream van.

Known as the Victorian “Queen of Ices”, Marshall transformed frozen food into a field of invention. Through her recipes, public demonstrations and patented equipment, she helped establish ice cream as a fashionable middle-class pursuit, with frozen mixtures pressed into moulds and presented as fruit, animals and ornamental sculptures.

Yet access to this pleasure was sharply divided by class. While wealthy households relied on machinery and trained labour to produce spectacular desserts, working-class customers bought tiny portions from street vendors in communal glasses known as penny licks. Their thick bases made meagre servings appear generous, while inadequate washing turned them into potential carriers of disease. The edible cone eventually offered a cleaner and more portable alternative.

This history is made tangible through objects from the Robin and Caroline Weir Ice Cream Collection, presented by the British Museum of Food. Metal moulds and glass penny licks appear alongside cartoons, advertisements, postcards and sheet music, revealing how ice cream has been manufactured, marketed and mythologised.

Milly Aburrows’ striped awning transforms the archival display into something between a museum vitrine, shopfront and seaside kiosk, framing a history in which access to pleasure has never been equal. From here, the exhibition opens into contemporary works by Aburrows, Emma Black, Katie Eraser, Holly Halkes, Helen Hamilton, Winnie Hall, Bex Massey, Samah Rafiq, Olivia Sterling and Katie Tomlinson.

Across painting, sculpture and installation, familiar treats become vehicles for exploring class, race, gender, ageing, sexuality, disability and desire. Emma Black turns taste into a mechanical action through a ceramic head connected to pipes and fittings, while Winnie Hall transforms her sister into an affectionate yet uncanny soft-serve portrait. Olivia Sterling uses white ice cream to examine the pressures placed upon the Black body, and Katie Tomlinson presents a bakery window in which pastries become symbols of aspiration, possession and control.

Elsewhere, Helen Hamilton turns supermarket doughnuts into bodily attachments impaled upon metal structures. Samah Rafiq’s pristine soft serve adopts the polished language of advertising, while Katie Eraser fuses two nostalgic Australian ice creams into a sticky, unstable image liable to age. Throughout the exhibition, sweetness repeatedly moves towards contamination, violence or aftermath.

The sensory journey extends into sound, with Telepathic Instruments reimagining the electronic song of the ice-cream van on the gallery’s organ. Bompas & Parr also serves ice cream to visitors, placing them directly within the exhibition’s story. No longer preserved behind glass, the subject is held, tasted and lost, beginning to melt from the moment it is handed over.

By combining contemporary art, social history, sound and hospitality, Fancy Ices considers who has been able to enjoy this apparently simple pleasure, how it has been sold and what pressures can hide beneath its surface. Its melting form brings these ideas together: enjoyment is real but temporary, and even the most familiar treat can carry a complicated history.

Fancy Ices runs from 15 July to 28 August 2026.
The exhibition is open Fridays, 12pm-5pm, or by appointment.
To book an appointment, email rsvp@bompasandparr.com