In the aftermath of change, attention often turns to what begins anew. Far less visible, however, is the ongoing effort required to sustain what remains. The Work of Holding shifts focus towards this quieter domain—towards acts of care, maintenance, and endurance that unfold beyond moments of rupture or renewal.
Bringing together a range of practices, the exhibition attends to the labour of holding: holding space, holding memory, holding structures—both material and intangible—against forces of erosion, fatigue, and dispersal. Such gestures are rarely immediate or resolved. They emerge through repetition and persistence, sustained by a commitment to continuity that resists spectacle.
Rather than privileging transformation or arrival, the exhibition dwells in duration. It considers what it means to carry, to support, to preserve—whether through the body, through material processes, or through collective forms of attention. Within this frame, fragility is not approached as weakness, but as a condition that calls for care.
Situated within the temporal rhythm of May—a moment often associated with labour, growth, and collective presence—The Work of Holding reflects on the often-unseen infrastructures that sustain both life and practice. It invites a reconsideration of effort: not as productivity alone, but as an ongoing, attentive relation to what must be kept, upheld, and carried forward.

The artists whose work features in this exhibition are: Anthea Hendry, Daniil Shukhman, Fatma Durmush, Galina Stefanova, Gurmant Kaur, Lisa Kenneally, Simge Vurtak.

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