Jarvis Cocker and Kim Sion to curate art exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield | Hepworth Wakefield

A new exhibition organized by Jarvis Cocker and his wife, artist Kim Sion, will open Hepworth Wakefield next year, with the aim of encouraging people to find their skills.

Opening in May 2027, Hodge Podge will bring together your choices that challenge conventional ideas of what art can be.

The Hepworth said the exhibition will invite “unexpected 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 outsiders and visionaries not shown in UK museums.

“We’ve chosen projects that have been with us for years,” Cocker told the Guardian. “We’re trying to encourage people to realize that they have talent within themselves.”

The museum said the exhibition reflects the pair’s interest in alternative forms of expression, community and how people gather outside of religion or elites.

“It’s always been important for people to be articulate, but especially now, when you have other things to do for you,” Cocker said.

He said that when times are tough, and “the outside world seems to be going wrong”, people often have to look inward to find what helps them.

“Because they will not receive help from an inhospitable outside world, it is important to realize that you are capable of doing things. You don’t have to be a consumer all the time. It is also important to be creative. This is what makes humans different from other animals, we can look at the world and create things using our experiences.”

He added: “There is no other way to support other than capitalism.

Cocker and Sion will explore alternative spirituality, psychedelia, fandom, dreams, poetry and music. The exhibition will also include the immersive Dreamachine, a lighting device created by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.

Designed to be seen with the eyes closed, they are designed to create visual and cognitive changes.

“Everybody sees things differently,” Cocker said. “It seems that Gysin was in the back of a car that was going through a road with trees, and the sun shining through the trees was flashing like this and it made him look amazing.”

In the Hodge Podge Manifesto, the couple notes that the word originated in the 15th century from the Middle English-French word hochepot, meaning stew made with many ingredients.

“Hodge Podge begins with a nest,” they write. “Birds called bower birds build nests and then decorate them with things they find in the surrounding areas.

Sion says: “When we met 18 years ago, our first conversation was about living in the moment and being honest.” It’s a big part of us, so it’s fun to express that.

He said he hopes that many children and young people will visit. “When I was a child, my father was very interested in art, and he used to take me to the Camden Arts Center and lots of exhibitions. A lot of them weren’t famous or famous artists, but I remember a lot of pieces.”

Laura Smith, artistic director of Hepworth Wakefield, said: “Jarvis Cocker has had a long-standing interest in art, attending St Martin’s College of Art and Design in the early 1990s, and as a Yorkshireman, he felt like the right person to work with to imagine a new way of thinking about and experiencing art.

“The art that he and Kim have brought together at Hodge Podge will inspire the joy, wonder and passion that great works of art can inspire and give our audiences an expanded sense of art and community.”