Holly Argent

From my little planet to yours 🪐.... beaming in from Toulouse gardens to share that @aitch_collardo and I have started a radio show on @slacksradio called 'Listen, We Could' Part Inspired by Pauline Oliveros' philosophy for sonic awareness and deep listening practices, and saxophonist Gary Bartz who sees music as nature's religion - sounds are nature's gift to the universe! 💛 I think both ask us how can we be more conscious and intentional listeners in the world. Lately been thinking a lot more about what is it to be a listener.... of music, sounds, vibrations, but also to listen to ourselves and other human beings, to our surroundings, other species, ecologies and geologies, plants and lands. How listening is an individual invitation and the collective possibility of it.... (that's the head-stuff...) but basically the show is a chance to share sounds that we are both really into, that move us physically, emotionally, spiritually!! 🕺 😭 😄 🔮 ✨ The March show is online....a few blunders (mostly from me still understanding how decks and microphones work 🙃). Next live show is 24th April, 6pm. Tune in!

Mini album of photos from walks with gorgeous companions that have walked outside with me this winter. Grateful for friends old and new and solo times too. I love this season for lots of reasons, for one, you get to see the skeletons of trees, their forms and shapes revealed, bare and vulnerable. A metaphor that feels pertinent. Exposure. This winter has been like no other, relief, hope filled and painful, truths darker than I could previously recognise. The kind of days that arrive to show you ______. That ______ something must be seen and understood. A period of breakage, shocker, fog lifts. Warmth and coldness simultaneously. A textbook case. Thinking how a seed must crack it's shell in order to absorb water, to grow and fruit, it's called imbibition. Mossy soft safe landings - thank you. All necessary stuff. lots of thoughts and words lately feel inspired by Mary Oliver 💙...she has been good winter company. This is her poem 'Winter Hours' ... In the winter I am writing about, there was much darkness. Darkness of nature, darkness of event, darkness of spirit. The sprawling darkness of not knowing. We speak of the light of reason. I would speak here of the darkness of the world, and the light of ______. But I don't know what to call it. Maybe hope. Maybe faith, but not a shaped faith - only, say, a gesture, or a continuum of gestures. But probably it is closer to hope, that is more active, and far messier than faith must be. Faith, as i imagine it, is tensile, and cool, and has no need of words. Hope, I know, is a fighter and a screamer. 💗 pics - coffee at Shaftoe craggs this morning pre meeting, G on the Allendale moors and moss, blast beach with Sage, the long distance walker troupe in the north pennines, Maria in the snow, marmalde toast post morning hike up the sugarloaf, hadrian wall country with Ellie and Sarah + sheep skull, Emily near Howick sands and a foaming northumberland sea, plessey woods, jane austen way with Dad, just beyond St Mary's lighthouse, under a winter full moon with Rosie. 💕

Walking Bernicia's garden in October ! A little delayed thank you post.... but overwhelmed with how beautiful it was to walk with an amazing group of people, meet new folks and new landscapes in our part of the world, Bernicia, together 🤍 From walking 100km in Northumberland to raise over £5000 for families in Palestine, looking queer-ily at how our post-industrial parks are designed, and wandering our local vicinity re-introducing ourselves to overlooked plant neighbours and hear their unique journeys and qualities.... it's been so meaningful and more brilliant than I could have imagined! Thank you to everyone that joined a walk (and thank you to the Autumn-gods for such a beautiful season and good weather 👌) Special gratitudes to Tom @tom__jeffreys , Tiki @tikimuir Emily, Claire, Than @nourishthewild and Laura Braunholtz @ldb_whut for your research, plans and careful guiding of these beautiful encounters, these days will stay with me for a long while! And a big thanks to @francesastacey and @newbridgeproject for supporting these walks as part of my programme A Revolt in Bernicia's Garden!! Next up.. 'Sharpening our Tools' series of skill-sharing workshops happening @topsoilqueergardening allotment this season... check Newbridge website for deets.

In 2 weeks I will be walking 64 miles/103 km in a fundraising walk with Tom Jeffreys, Tiki Muir and Emily Cropton and The NewBridge Project. On tireless wings is a solidarity walk and our aim is to raise money to send directly to families in Gaza to help them survive the ongoing genocide. The walk follows the outline of Gaza, transposed onto the towns and countryside of Northumberland, and just north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Starting in Morpeth, it will be 4 days of walking across fields, paths, tracks, through towns and villages. I’ve never walked this far before...!! So it'll be a challenge in more ways than one. For Tom, Emily and Tiki this is their third such effort raising funds on previous walks in Scotland and the borders. Please consider donating to the fundraiser if you can and share the link with friends, colleagues and family (link in bio) or join us in person to walk with us. On Saturday 11th October you’re invited to join the walk with The NewBridge Project with transport available to the start/from end/midway. All info online in the link in my bio. To join on a different day (or walk more than 1 day) please DM or email [email protected] and we’ll share details with you! Provisional itinerary 🚶‍♂️ Fri-Mon, 10 – 13 October 2025 Fri: Morpeth to Stamfordham (18 miles) Sat: Stamfordham to Ponteland (13 miles) Sun: Ponteland to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (18 miles) Mon: Newbiggin-by-the-Sea to Morpeth (15 miles) This walk is also the first event in a public programme I’ve put together called, ‘A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden’ starting this September - April 2026 exploring our relationship to plant-life and land @newbridgeproject . There will be a series of guided public walks, skill-shares @topsoilqueergardening and a research residency with artist and geographer Sage Brice! It has been a wee while in development, and a pleasure to be part of NewBridge’s programme committee over the last 18 months! Thank you to everyone at NB for all the work, support and guidance (so far), I’m look forward to what will unfold. Photos and slides by Tom Jeffreys, graphic design (last slide) by Benji spence 💞

As Isabella Hammad writes in Recognising the Stranger: "To remain human at this juncture is to remain in agony. Let us remain there: it is the more honest place from which to speak." We're helping to organise another solidarity walk to raise money for families in Gaza. The walk follows the outline of Gaza, transposed onto the towns and countryside of Northumberland, just north of Newcastle upon Tyne. This is the third such effort we have organised, following similar walks in the Scottish Borders in October 2024 and Edinburgh in May 2025. With the UN confirming deliberate famine in addition to relentless military assaults, the situation for families on the ground is now even more unthinkable. It is time to walk again. In placing one map on top of the other, the first thing you notice is how tiny Gaza is. 25 miles of coastline; a population of over 2 million people; bombed for two years, with barely a pause for breath, and no possibility to hide or escape. The walk is approximately 64 miles / 103 km long and will take place over 4 days. Once again, our aim is to raise money to send directly to families in Gaza to help them survive the ongoing genocide. This time, we are also working with the NewBridge Project, an artist-led cultural organisation in Newcastle, who are providing transport on the Saturday for people wishing to join the walk. 70% of funds raised will go to the Matar family: Suhail, Hanan, Muhammad, Deeb, Ali, Suhaila, Israa, Doaa, Zeina, Sila and Muhammad. Displaced from north Gaza at the beginning of the current genocide, they have repeatedly been forced to relocate over the ensuing months. Suhail was recently attacked at one of the US-run “aid distribution” centres and the medicine he now requires is expensive. 30% of funds raised will go to In Solidarity Edinburgh, a volunteer-run grassroots collective providing mutual aid to Palestinian families in Gaza. Provisional itinerary Fri-Mon, 10 – 13 October 2025 Fri: Morpeth to Stamfordham (18 miles) Sat: Stamfordham to Ponteland (13 miles) Sun: Ponteland to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (18 miles) Mon: Newbiggin-by-the-Sea to Morpeth (15 miles)

Some summer moments of skies, textures, flavours, learnings, burnings, trees, cats, butterflies.... 1 - Arriving under Toronto's hot skies 2 & 3 - Canoeing and resting on Sharbot Lake with Ava and Zen 4 - Shoreline finds below Dunstanburugh castle 5 - A yellow swallowtail on Echinacea 6 - Store cat security 7 - The wire-veins of Vtape 8 - Soft Senga Nengudi at DIA Beacon 9 - Central park meanderings 10 - David Hammond's 'Days End' 11 - Smoke trees 12 - Numerous delectable soft serve treats from Bar Ape

Holly Argent is an artist and programmer. At the centre of their practice is a curiosity with what searching for kinship might demonstrate; longing, an absence or lack of intimacy, a quest for reappraisal or desire for connection with ourselves and community. Their practice is an on-going process of finding ways to articulate these speculative/concrete relations with living and non-living beings, materials, histories and cultural narratives, particularly those found in archive and library spaces. This work finds shape through activities including writing, performance-lectures, librarianship, video, sculpture, reading groups, screenings and publications. Holly is Librarian to Women Artists of the North East Library (est. 2017). As an expansive artwork including a physical collection, public events programme and artist commissions, the library sets up contexts and perspectives for exploring artistic legacies of women and non-binary artists associated with the region. #hypha #artcollective #womenartists #contemporaryartists #womenartistsofthenortheastlibrary #art #sculpture #publications #writing #reading #video #performance #lecture

Electrical fault at de Bibliotheek: workshop and reading event 📆 Date: Sunday 03/12/23 🕒Time: 15:00 - 17:00 📍Where: Paviljoen aan het Water Brielselaan 157, 3081 AC Rotterdam @paviljoen_aan_het_water Language of the event is english. Not ticketed, but please email [email protected] to RSVP 📚 On Monday at 16:05 I arrived, rain-drenched. In front of the stalled revolving door, a person dressed in a black official-looking jacket told me (and what had grown to be a small group of us) there was an electrical fault in Rotterdam Central Library. Everyone allowed out, no one allowed in. First attempt and I failed. The library failed. The face of the person closest to my right half-smiled, or half-sighed, or it could have been a look of relief. Something went untranslated. 🖊 Join me for a collective reading session exploring the idea of a ‘failed library’. Inspired by the tools it offers readers to resist standardised and hierarchical systems and categories, we will be reading sections of Jack Halberstam’s book ‘The Queer Art of Failure’ (2011), considering it’s possibilities and application to librarianship. We will also try writing and reading activities connected to terminology used in the book, including: forgetfulness, non-linearity, incoherence, stalling, detour, and failure. You do not need to have read the book in advance. I hope for the event to be playful and relaxed, and also act as an opportunity to talk and share experiences of working with, in or alongside libraries, archives, collections and printed matter. Event part of a residency at Paviljoen aan het Water, where I am using the time to question what it may mean to have librarianship as part of a creative practice and an art-form, and connect with others in the city interested in this topic.

Newcastle friends - Join us for 3 Watch Along: Films from Palestine Solidarity Screenings over the next 2 weeks! Thanks v much to the NewBridge team for all the support making these happen, and offering the space to watch together. If you can't make the screenings, but would still like to support please get in touch and we can share how to donate to the fundraiser ! /// Films from Palestine: Solidarity Screenings 🇵🇸 📺Join us at The NewBridge Project cinema room for three Solidarity screenings of films made by Palestinian filmmakers, programmed in the wake of escalating violence and devastation in Palestine and the Middle East, this collection of films explore all the ways occupation stifles life and the many more ways that Palestinians find to resist and persist. 🔻Monday 13 November: 6pm – 8.15pm 🔻Tuesday 14 November: 6pm – 8pm 🔻Monday 20 November: 11am – 1pm and 2pm – 3.30pm (alongside our regular coffee morning) In this moment, join us in coming together to stand in solidarity, learn with each other and support Medical Aid Palestine. Everyone is welcome. Screenings are not ticketed but we do encourage attendees to donate to Medical Aid Palestine and further details of how to donate to the fundraiser will be shared at the screenings. More info: link in @newbridgeproject bio 🔗 The watch along of ‘Films from Palestine: Solidarity Screening’ has been organised by our studio member @hargent and The NewBridge Project. #thenewbridgeproject #solidarityscreenings #solidarity#SolidarityWithGaza

This week wonderful work by Fiona Larkin opens at @mimauseful in the show 'Soft Structures' 💜 This Thursday evening 21st 17:00 - 19:00 join us for an opening night part of 'Art + Social No.12' when Fiona will give a short talk about her beautiful work 'Soft Power' 💕 Fiona was commissioned by @womenartistsnelibrary and @mimauseful ! I'm thrilled this is opening for all to see! On until March 2024 ⭐

Chlorophyll days, (one) most-divine victoria plum, eaten. Endless purfume bouquets, tea views, fed. Haribo sours 🍸 Sunday Sundae, colour-fullness, full.  🌱💐 🍨

Showing some new (very very new!) sculptural work in this exhibition at the weekend! Join us in Healey in Riding Mill - There is an opening event on Friday 12 May, 4.30 - 8.00pm. There is a minibus going from Newcastle city centre for anyone without transport or not sure how to get there (DM me for info about spaces!) It's been so greeeat to do this with a super supportive and amazing group of people. & to get to know my new studio and it's evening skies and shadows. 🌻🌻🌻🌻 ----- Hypha - is a group of women artists based in Newcastle/Gateshead. Initiated in 2022 by Catherine Bertola and Claire Morgan, as a consequence of the impact of Covid, we wanted to build a supportive, generous, and critically engaged community. This pop-up exhibition brings together the work of eleven of the artists for the first time in a physical space, to further reveal the threads that connect us. The intimate venue will be host to a range of work spanning sculpture, drawing, film and sound. Holly Argent @hargent   Catherine Bertola @catherinebertola   Jo Coupe @jo_coupe   Katie Cuddon @katie.cuddon   Jennifer Douglas @jenjennadouglas   Claire Morgan @clairemorganstudio   Rosie Morris @_rosie_morris_   Bethany Stead @bethstead_   Matilda Sutton @matildasuttonart   Harriet Sutcliffe @harriet_sutcliffe   Olivia Turner @oliv.turner   The show is open on Sat 13 and Sun 14 May, 11.30am-4.30pm, at the Church of St John, Healey, Riding Mill, NE44 6BJ