Exhibition
Jonathan Baldock: Held
27 Jun-27 Sep 2026
Arnolfini
Bristol BS1 4QA
Overview
Arnolfini transforms into a colourful, immersive wilderness of nature and folklore this summer
Known for his striking installations, Jonathan Baldock combines ceramics, textiles and sound to create environments that are both playful and thought-provoking. His work draws on folklore, traditional craft and personal history, shaped by skills passed down through generations of making.
Held features a monumental wild bear sculpture, commissioned by Arnolfini. It invites visitors into a direct physical encounter — not to be held, but to hold us.
At Arnolfini, the galleries become a colourful, sensory landscape inspired by the natural world, somewhere between a garden and a wilderness. Aether — a work formed from beeswax, ceramic and glass — hovers overhead, evoking a space between worlds. At the entrance, visitors are welcomed by The Caretakers, ceremonial costumes adorned with hand-stitched plant motifs, setting the tone for a space rooted in care. Beyond, a vivid array of ceramic and wall-based textile sculptures unfolds: flowers with faces emerging from petals, trailing roots and body parts, creating a cultivated wilderness that blurs boundaries between the human and the natural.
Sound by artist Luke Barton and a custom scent by Lora Hemy fill the space, adding to the exhibition’s immersive and intimate atmosphere.
The bear itself draws on a long cultural history, from ancient myth to the familiar comfort of childhood toys. Over the course of the exhibition, its surface will become worn through use, carrying the marks of the thousands of people who encounter it. Its face, modelled on a scan of the artist’s mother, adds a deeply personal dimension.
In an age increasingly defined by loneliness, accelerated by the rise of AI and a gradual loss of communal spaces, Held proposes physical closeness as a radical and necessary gesture. The Arnolfini galleries are transformed into an environment of comfort and care in which we can slow down and feel our way back to nature, and each other.
