Hope & Ponies
a factory of hope
Hope & Ponies is new work exploring hope and resilience. It takes the form of an installation and film.
We've been exploring hope with people from across the UK, and making banners which give concrete form to their hopes, whether fleeting or longstanding, practically simple or entangled in political complexities. Join us to recharge your own store of hope, reflect, and contribute.
Experience it
2024
6 July - Hope & Ponies Takeover in Tramway, Glasgow - see a few of the banners and help us make more - info
10 July - 22 August - Pontefract Library Wakefield - see 12 banners with words by local people
1- 17 August - Upper Gallery, Tramway - in association with Govan Hill Baths Canival
8 September - Southbank Centre, as part of the Unlimited Festival - see the banners activate The Clore Ballroom and help us make more - info
12 September - 22 November - you will see four different banners in each of these libraries -- Wakefield One, Horbury Library, Hemsworth Library
14 November - January 2025 - Unlimited Headquarters, WX Wakefield - the 12 Wakefield banners re-united for the festive season
This year (2024) we're creating a new work on hope in collaboration with Ukrainian artist Nadia Sokolenko. Recognising that hope fuels us all, but often needs fuel, we're focused on building hope and making it visible.
Hope is often slippery, evading our efforts to hold onto it, to retain it within ourselves. And hope is a fragile foundation to build upon. Unlike faith, it does not have a counterpart external to ourselves. It is related to (warning: pandemic buzzword…) resilience and determination, but hope lies beneath, feeding those. Hope is an acknowledgement of the uncertainty which pervades our lives, and of our ability to commit despite uncertainty (to a person, to a cause, to enduring seemingly unending suffering).
Recognising that hope can be fragile, and can be powered by resolute determination, we're sharing hopes through an installation which invites visitors to spend time with other people's hopes, to reflect and recharge, and to contribute their thoughts — which may become part of the growing installation.
Initial concept development supported by Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Theatre in the Mill, Bradford
Development supported by Creative Scotland with BIRCA.
A location-based iteration of this project, Hope in Wakefield, is an Unlimited commission in partnership with The Art House and British Council. It will be seen across the Wakefield District as part of Our Year 2024.
