Artists participating in holdfast consider the implications of the hand, holding or being held for our work, physical and interior lives and the various social landscapes we occupy. The exhibition draws from the notion of being 'securely held' within a piece of writing or artwork, where a reader or viewer is given space and consideration within the narrative and form of the work. The hand is read variously as a figure, mechanism and index that carries representations of humanness, labour, control, care and resistance.

* Image: work by Bridget Baker & Bianca Baldi, © 2014