British artist LR Vandy presents 'Rise' at Yorkshire Sculpture Park's Weston Gallery, featuring rope sculptures that appear caught mid-motion. The exhibition includes works like 'A Call to Dance,' a monumental maypole form, and explores themes of tension, labor, and movement through maritime fibers sourced from her studio at Chatham Dockyard. The sculptures climb walls, loop through pulleys, and collapse onto the floor, evoking both architectural strength and delicate fragility.
This exhibition matters because Vandy uses rope—a material historically tied to ships, cargo, and dockyard labor—to examine collective resistance and social bonding through communal movement. By referencing maypole traditions and the policing of public gatherings, she connects historical rituals to modern concerns about dance and public assembly. The work insists on keeping tension and malleability visible, offering a nuanced commentary on how communities form connections through shared rhythm and physical expression.