Sculptor, Holly Hendry in conversation with Helen Pheby, Head of Curatorial Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Holly Hendry’s sculptures look at the back of things; open cracks where you see the gooey insides. The works deal with internal and external in terms of the body, display and production – architectural rear spaces and hidden bodily activities or situations that are brought into view through specific objects, textures or forms. Through scale and material manipulation, she addresses concerns of permeability and morbidity through a visual language that speaks of comic insignificance.

Holly Hendry lives and works in London. She has exhibited internationally at institutions such as: De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea (2021), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2019/20); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2017); Sharjah Art Foundation (2014) and was part of the Liverpool Biennial (2018) and La Biennale de Lyon (2019). Hendry was the Rome Fellow in Contemporary Art at the British School at Rome in 2018 and was awarded the Arts Foundation Award for Experimental Architecture in 2019.

Dr Helen Pheby is the Head of Curatorial Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, an international centre for modern and contemporary art set in 500 acres of historic parkland, five galleries, and an 18th-century chapel. She is a recognised authority on art beyond the institution. Her offsite projects include A Place in Time (2016) at NIROX Sculpture Park in the UNESCO Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, and the Kyiv Sculpture Project (2012), the first open-air display of contemporary sculpture in Ukraine. She is the invited co-curator of the Duke Street entrance to Selfridges’ flagship London store and is Chair of UP Projects, London.