HS Projects: no fixed address
hsprojects.com Instagram: @hs_projects
Perhaps HS Projects isn’t a gallery, but – as described by its directors, a ‘cultural consultancy’. However, the lobby of 5 Howick Place near Victoria hosts regular shows, and there are also exhibition projects elsewhere. The ‘H’ and ‘S’ in question – Alistair Howick and Tina Sotiriadi – had backgrounds in the city and in art history respectively before branching into curation, and they have been working together since 2000. In their words: ‘We specialise in delivering artistic interventions and projects in unexpected places, from major public sculptures and large scale group exhibitions to community engagement projects, and from suggesting artists for development projects, to designing bespoke creative strategies.’ But, to return to Howick Place, you can currently see Saad Qureshi’s exhibition ‘Of Paradise and Other Places’, centred on a monumental sculptural installation that emerged from him travelling the country to ask people – whether of faith, agnostic or as atheist as me – about how they would represent the concept of Paradise. That takes its place in an impressive run of shows: Andrea V Wright, Fiona Curran, Laura White, Olivia Bax, Permindar Kaur, Laura Ford and Jyll Bradley are other favourites of mine who have featured there in recent years. Current activity also includes Julie F Hill’s ‘The Book of Sand’ at 5 Marble Arch, and several venues have been used. I recall the Dutch artist Jan Eric Visser’s abstract sculptures made with his personal everyday inorganic household waste, as shown in Hammersmith, where Annie Trevorah is next up in December. HS Projects must have presented more exhibitions than quite a few galleries…
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.
