What lasts doesn’t always hold shape

Hypha Gallery 2 / No. 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EN

PV: Thursday, 29th January 2026, 6-9pm

Open: 30 January – 7 March 2026

The exhibition will present a sculptural installation by Levent Ozruh, small-scale sculptures by Nicolas Deshayes, a large-scale piece by Jobe Burns, and a commissioned site-specific video work by Marian Drew, a debut in this medium for the artist. Gallery Two will be dimly lit, spotlighting artworks and enhancing Drew’s slowly moving video projection, accompanied by a resonant soundscape.

A cultural shift recognising the value of durable materials in the built environment calls for greater awareness of presence and impact. This exhibition seeks to honour those temporal layers often unseen in the built world.

No. 1 Poultry connects directly to this concern. Built with a concrete and steel frame typical of Postmodern structures, its yellow-pink sandstone-clad façade gives the impression of a solid stone building, aligning with the surrounding architecture of the City of London and its Roman foundations. In an age where technology mimics materials, brick veneers or steel clad in timber patterns, this exhibition celebrates practices that challenge and interrogate stone as a material. Unyielding yet transformative, stone bears the weight of history while inviting renewal. It stands alone, yet forms the foundation for meaning.

The marble in Ozruh’s 3D-printed sculptures once came from Italian quarries, its dust now endlessly recirculated. Drew’s drifting rocks evoke deep space—symbolising distance, closeness, and a critique of the Anthropocene.

Burns explores the paradox of stone as both resistant and regenerative. Deshayes draws on artisanal and industrial craft traditions to explore material deception. What appears to be cold stone reveals itself as painted, anthropomorphic metal—lifeless, yet uncannily human.

The exhibition invites viewers to consider the multiple lives of both site and material, questioning the circularity of the built environment. 

Levent Ozruh

Nicolas Deshayes

Jobe Burns