Written by Bronte Teal

We are pleased to announce that Pheobe riley Law is the Holding Space: Artist in Residence for 2026.

Between April and June this year, Humber Street Gallery will host multi-disciplinary artist Pheobe riley Law in our Space 2. Throughout the residency Pheobe will be experimenting with new work and investigating emergent elements of sound and film-based practice. Pheobe will be supported with curatorial and artistic support from Humber Street Gallery staff and a dedicated space to work in.

Throughout the residency, Pheobe will present work in progress in Space 2, inviting inquisitiveness, curiosity, and connection with the public.

Pheobe will take part in a public roundtable event in September 2026 alongside fellow artists-in-residence and Humber Street Gallery staff.

This residency forms part of Holding Space, a new programme of activity at Humber Street Gallery where we trial new approaches and work flexibly with what we programme, produce and support.

Humber Street Gallery’s CEO & Artistic Director, Dave McLeavy, shared:

“We are very excited to welcome Pheobe back to Humber Street Gallery as part of our Holding Space Residency programme. It’s always exciting to welcome artists who are pushing boundaries across multiple disciplines, but even more so for an artist who has come through our artist development programmes in previous years, as is the case with Pheobe, having been part of our inaugural Inter_Change programme between 2021-22.

Pheobe’s residency also marks an exciting time for Humber Street Gallery, as we begin to use the space across our building in new and inventive ways. We will be adapting Space 2 to accommodate a more varied model for programming, ensuring we have space for residencies, workshops, exhibitions and performances. We are excited for Pheobe’s residency to mark the start of this new phase for the organisation”

Phoebe also spoke about her upcoming residency:

“I’m excited by the opportunity to step away from my usual routine; a period of time where I can shift from a 9-5 productivity mindset we are all so conditioned by, and into a more conscious & playful way of working.

Over the past year, through a project funded through an Arts Council DYCP grant and time spent reconnecting with my Yorkshire roots, I’ve been exploring what it means to build a more sustainable and supportive artistic practice within the current UK climate.

HSG is a creatively nurturing environment, and having previously been part of the interchange programme in 2021, it feels meaningful to return & continue that relationship. During the residency, I will use the studio to hold workshops, conversations & develop new performance, installation and film works, including day-long durational work, sound walks rooted in psychogeographic data, and experimental vocal work with mechanical gardening tools. I’m particularly excited to deepen existing and new ideas, collaborate with others, and build new connections within the city that will shape future performance structures. I also hope to bring collaborators to Hull too as a way to expand the network.”

About Pheobe riley Law

Pheobe riley Law is an installation artist working across in sound, performance, sculpture, photography and moving image. She builds dialogues between different bodies, borders and devices to activate new relationships. She is particularly interested in non-human actors, inanimate objects, and how human activity is shaped by systems of boundary-creation.Through playful inversions, she highlights the object-hood of humanity and the agency of the “inanimate”. In her latest performance Installation Vegetal Empathy she presents a speculative simulation of the garden exploring our entanglement with more-than- human entities through data, micro-listening and acts of tending. Re-contextualising & collaborating with microscopic realities of soil systems, plants, moss species and data to explore ideas of radical care. Explorations focus on machine technologies as our collaborators (both sonically and physically); the relationship we have to the natural world (including the livestock industry) and the role salt has on aquatic life.

Ongoing and previous projects include: Vegetal Empathy (supported by the Sound Generator award 2024-25) exhibited at Lubber Kitchen, Green lens studio, Electronics Symposium at the Cornish Bank, Humber Street Gallery, Filet space, Field-Notes Live & shortlisted for the Fluxus Museum Award 2026. Plant Listening installation with Modus Arts. Moss Listening at Sonic Acts Biennale Amsterdam, Netherlands. Machine Equities made during a residency at Fabrica Research Centre.

Other projects include: Curator for Let Us Cook (Concertgebouw Brugge); installation for Soft-hued vessels & vast, slender boundaries (Rainy Days Festival, Luxembourg 2025 & 2024); Residency with Simultan/Semi-Silent/Sonic Narratives (Timișoara) resulting in a piece called Sound:Run:Brea(d)th (2025). The Sound of Food, Kupfer Project (London, 2024); cam.bi.um (flora) with Gaia Blandina 2024, Hull Jazz Festival; dep.can.gre.sou with Abbas Zahedi at RCA 2024. installations at Humber Street Gallery; Spikersuppa Gallery (Oslo); and Cove Park (Scotland). She has shown work at The Baltic, Hatton Gallery, in Denmark, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Pheobe has performed BBC Radio 3, sour bay at Matsudo Science Art Festival, Fort Process, Ftarri, and Café Oto.

Website: www.pheoberileylaw.yolasite.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/pheobelaw/