Artist in Residence Exhibition

esK: ‘Cuiridh mi clach air do chárn -I’ll put a stone on your cairn’
A new exhibition from Artist in Residence esK (Stewart Knights) reflecting on their experience living at the IOU Hostel Hebden Bridge and their time in Calderdale

Over their time in South Pennines, esK has developed a love for the cairns (purposefully stacked stones) of the hills and moors.

“Memorials and compasses pointing towards the mishmash of ideas and histories that I have come to know and love whilst here in Calderdale”.

This has led esK to choose, for their final project as Artist in Residence, to create interactive cairn-like structures out of found and gifted objects. The exhibition explores how cairns could form in urban contexts using everyday materials. The original use of cairns and standing stones for rituals, navigation and memorial purposes are preserved in these interactive sculptures while also encouraging storytelling and play.

esK “Take this opportunity to see cairns as the new roadside archive, the meeting point of the town-square campfire, the way marker offering you a way out of the endless labyrinth of ginnels.”

Exhibition Preview
Thursday 13 March 2025, 5pm-8pm
IOU Creation Centre