A new exhibition curated by Jarvis Cocker and his wife, the creative consultant Kim Sion, will open at Hepworth Wakefield next year, aiming to encourage people to discover their own creativity.
Opening in May 2027, the Hodge Podge will bring together a personal selection of works challenging conventional ideas of what art can be.
The Hepworth said the show would invite “unlikely conversations and interesting encounters” between artists such as Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, Klara Kristalova, Emma Kunz, Mark Leckey and Agnes Pelton, as well as unknown outsider and visionary artists never exhibited in UK public museums.
“We’ve chosen works that have stuck with us over the years,” Cocker told the Guardian. “We’re trying to encourage people to realise that they have creativity within them.”
The museum said the exhibition reflected the couple’s interest in alternative means of expression, class and the way communities come together outside religious or elite settings.
“It’s always been important for people to express themselves creatively, but it’s especially so now, when you can have other things to do it for you,” Cocker said.
He said when times were tough, and “the outside world seems to be becoming a not very nice place”, people often had to look within for something sustaining.
“Because they’re not going to get the help from the inhospitable outside world, it’s important to realise that you are capable of doing things. You don’t have to be a consumer all the time. It’s important to be a creator as well. That’s what makes humans different to other animals, we’re able to look at the world and create things based on our experiences of it.”
He added: “There’s no other alternative being espoused except capitalism. And capitalism is all about consuming things and buying things. That’s how you prove your worth as a citizen. But we weren’t born as capitalists, we were born as creative creatures. We’re trying to take people back to the Garden of Eden, basically.”
Cocker and Sion will explore alternative spiritualities, psychedelia, fandom, dreams, poetry and music. The exhibition will also include an immersive Dreamachine, the flickering light device co-invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.
Designed to be viewed with closed eyes, it is intended to induce vivid visual patterns and altered states of consciousness.
“Everybody sees different things,” Cocker said. “Gysin was apparently in the back of a car driving down an avenue with trees, and the sun shining through the trees made this kind of flickering effect and sent him into a funny state.”
In the Hodge Podge Manifesto, the couple note the phrase originated in the 15th century from the Middle English-French phrase hochepot, meaning a stew made of many ingredients.
“The Hodge Podge begins with a nest,” they write. “Bower birds build nests and then decorate them with objects they find in the surrounding area. There is no practical reason why they do this. They are the only creature in the entire animal kingdom that decorates its abode just for fun. Except for humans.”
Sion said: “When we met 18 years ago, our first conversation was about living in the moment and being true to yourself. It’s such a big part of us. So it’s wonderful to be able to express that.”
She said she hoped that many children and young people would visit. “When I was a child, my father was hugely into contemporary art, and used to take me to the Camden Arts Centre and lots of exhibitions. A lot of it wasn’t well-known or established artists, but I remember so many of the pieces.”
Laura Smith, artistic director of the Hepworth Wakefield, said: “Jarvis Cocker has a long-held interest in art, attending St Martin’s College of Art and Design in the early 1990s, and as a Yorkshireman, felt like the ideal person to work with to consider a fresh way of thinking about and experiencing art.
“The art that he and Kim have gathered together in the Hodge Podge will encourage the feelings of joy, marvel and curiosity that great works of art can inspire and offer our audiences an expanded idea of creativity and community.”
