Festival Commissions 2023
Holly Graham
On the verge of something very big
Holly Graham
On the verge of something very big, 2023
Invited to respond to Deptford X’s 25 year history, Holly Graham presents a collaged text work, ‘On the verge of something very big’, collated from archived Deptford X pamphlets, press articles and visitor feedback. These compositions form a non-linear history of Deptford and reveal the aspirations and anxieties projected onto the future of the area. Heterogeneous voices are scrambled, regrouped and collaged together, with Graham considering the tendency of arts and culture to be co-opted and used to fuel gentrification, examining artists’ complicity in this process and contemplating the broader implications of these uneasy dynamics.
Available within the Deptford X 25th anniversary publication, ‘Uncertain times’, which can be viewed or purchased at the festival Hub and Lewisham Arthouse.
Holly Graham is a London-based artist whose work looks at ways in which memory and narrative shape collective histories. Holly holds a BFA from Oxford University and an MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art. Recent solo projects include commissions with: UP Projects & Barnet Council (2023); TACO!, London (2021-23); Skelf, Online (2022); Robert Young Antiques, London (2021); Gaada, Shetland (2020); Goldsmiths CCA, Online (2020); and Southwark Park Galleries, London (2020). Holly is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London; and is Co-Founder of Cypher BILLBOARD, London. She was awarded a scholarship at the British School in Rome for 2023.