Anne Hardy

-

Anne Hardy Detail of Being (Immaterial) Artist’s clothes, rusted wire, shells, welded steel, jesmonite, jewellery, cast concrete, bronze, pewter, white metal, dried plant, earth 2023-2024 © Anne Hardy. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
Anne Hardy, detail of 'Being (Immaterial)', Artist’s clothes, rusted wire, shells, welded steel, jesmonite, jewellery, cast concrete, bronze, pewter, white metal, dried plant, earth, 2023-2024 © Anne Hardy. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.

In 2026, British artist Anne Hardy will transform Talbot Rice Gallery into a single, large sentient space. Her sculptures are an accumulation of cast elements, found materials and earth drawings, creating an energetic synthesis between the fragility and resilience of human bodies, evolving technologies and the remnants of everyday objects, all set within a landscape that is both human and post-human. 

Harnessing the language of a neoclassical ruin, Hardy’s pioneering approach to the technology of exhibition making will bring each space to life, extending the influence of sculpture into the fabric of the galleries and through light, sound, data and scenography, create an atmosphere that will activate spectators and cast spells over the room. 

While exploring the terrains of AI, deep time and imagining a future archaeology, Hardy also studies the politics of display, and grafts seemingly incompatible contexts into another: an outdoor plaza into a museum; a colossal monument into an interior gallery; an archaeological dig into an historic building. As well as forming the body through her sculptures and assemblages, she also studies the way our bodies behave when triggered by texture beneath out feet, natural or synthetic sound in strange places, barely perceptible movements of light, or a gust of wind. 

Anne Hardy’s exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery will be curated by Tessa Giblin, and take place in the University of Edinburgh from 27 June – 27 September 2026.