Sculpture Galleries of the Not Future is a new publication by curator Kerry Harker and artist Holly Rowan Hesson and the first stage in our ongoing collaboration. It takes our respective Instagram projects #GalleriesOfTheFuture and #NotSculptureHollyRowanHesson, which often capture similar urban sites across the UK but from differing perspectives, as a starting point for a conversation about creative practice and lived experiences of the city as women.

KH: ‘[Galleries of the Future] is also a very personal project. The series began in 2016 when I was experiencing grief after leaving The Tetley, a building that I loved and the culmination of a decade-long project to create an independent space for contemporary art in Leeds. You may know that I seriously considered studying architecture at one point in my teens so maybe that creeps in too. Taking these images is definitely a process of world-building, an expression of desire, a small act of resistance. What if every building I’ve ever photographed were now a space for art and community? There’s something hopeful about that too – despite (as you pointed out) the rather drab appearance of many of them. All they need is care.’

The publication is funded by Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society and designed by Jugganort.

Holly Rowan Hesson is a visual artist based in Leeds. She makes installations, sculpture and photographic works responding to her interests in how architecture, the built environment and physical space are experienced. She often explores sites in flux, transition or hiatus, working intuitively with the space as a material in itself as well as a container in which to make an intervention. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally over the last twelve years since completing an MA in Contemporary Fine Art. She is currently an AA2A Artist in Residence at York St John University and is working on a new project My Life in Concrete adding a personal twist to her ongoing post-war architecture research to make a large body of new work this year. Prior to her MA and subsequent career change Holly worked in project management including across regeneration, placemaking, the environment, skills and the cultural and creative industries. @hollyrowanhesson