Andrew Henderson & Mirren Pope
25th October – 9th November 2023
Andrew T Henderson is a surrealist sculptor, filmmaker, and performer living and working in Edinburgh. A graduate of the Edinburgh College of Art, he has worked in film, theatre, production design, and other media, developing a unique approach to sculpture that seeks to explore the interior mind through environments that express thoughts and feelings which are often hidden, even from ourselves.
Andrew’s main work on show during Hostile Architecture is two series of sculptures: What End, and Monuments/Come Home.
What End explores Andrew’s experience with depression, representing the issues he dealt with as physical spaces and interactions. Each piece looks at a different aspect of depression, and the series as a whole comes to reflect the way our internal experiences change our perceptions of the external world.
Monuments was developed during lockdown and reflects on isolation and what normality actually means. These works are presented orbiting another piece, Come Home, also made during lockdown, which offers another view on those subjects.
“All of these works are meant to be explored, rather than simply viewed,” Andrew states. “The way in which their elements interact for you will change depending on how you look at them, and I encourage you to find within them your own narrative.”
You can see more of Andrew’s work on Instagram.
Mirren Pope is a self-taught photographer from Edinburgh, aiming to capture the unnatural patterns that exist all around us, and how humans interact with them. The city itself has had a unique role in former Mirren’s style of working:
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, as an escape from the pressures of school and the bad news of the world, I used to walk around the centre of Edinburgh, which at the time was completely barren, taking photos. The combination of the dramatic architecture of Edinburgh and the lack of people on my short adventures forced the focus of my photography on to the buildings and structures. A deep love began to form then, which I have not yet been able to shake off.
I believe I am very lucky to get the chance to exist in a world so beautiful as this, and by taking photos of the scenes around me I aim to instill that same sense of awe in others. I create my art as a means to understand the world around me, to make sense of my surroundings, and to immortalise them. Going places and taking pictures gives me the opportunity to practice mindfulness, registering the here and now and taking a good look at my current setting is a practice I find very grounding. More often than not in the busyness of the lives we live, we fail to allocate time in the day to note our surroundings, causing a sort of disorientation. I treasure my art as it gives me a means to practice gratitude for the pleasantness all around us, that we so often become blind to. “
See more of Mirren’s work on Instagram.