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The Choreography of Steel and Emotional Labor Inside the Brutalist Body of De Zonnewijzer: Hannah Perry and the “Hard Love” Exhibition

The Choreography of Steel and Emotional Labor Inside the Brutalist Body of De Zonnewijzer: Hannah Perry and the “Hard Love” Exhibition

TICK TACK, one of Belgium’s contemporary art destinations in Antwerp, invites the audience into a multi-layered universe where industrial rigidity and psychological vulnerability collide through British artist Hannah Perry’s first institutional solo exhibition in the country, titled “Hard Love.” Architect Léon Stynen’s monumental 1955 Brutalist building, De Zonnewijzer, ceases to be a passive backdrop for the display with its raw concrete structure and permeable glass facade facing the street; instead, it transforms into a foundational subject of Perry’s site-specific arrangement. Spanning across three floors, this spatial choreography makes the tense intersections between architecture, body, and material visible by pushing the boundaries of steel, resin, moving image, and sound. While Perry responds to the building’s Brutalist heritage through direct auditory and visual interventions, she investigates how industrial forms can bear the weight of collective memory and emotional labor.

Born in Chester in 1984, the artist’s practice feeds on a refined synthesis of personal histories and dream-like fragments. Even though her point of departure is a highly subjective perspective, Perry successfully carries universal themes such as social class, gender, belonging, and the body-mind relationship beyond the boundaries of canvas and sculpture. Hard Love, as its name promises, transforms the ambiguous concept of “tough love”—which simultaneously embodies protection and strain, trauma and compassion—into a physical weight. While the coldness of steel and the fluid forms of resin come together in the gallery void, the accompanying audio layers confine the viewer to a suspended state of emotion in that narrow corridor between joy and melancholy. The industrial materials here operate not merely as tools of the construction sector or heavy labor, but as vectors embodying the overflows, desires, and mourning processes of human psychology.

“The relentless tension between the rigidity of industrial material and the fluidity of the human spirit transforms into a space of collective memory where the steel bends and the sound undulates.”

Having previously earned critical acclaim with solo exhibitions at some of the world’s most respected art institutions, such as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (2024) and the Julia Stoschek Foundation (2024), Hannah Perry solidifies her position as one of the most dynamic and urgent voices in contemporary art. Indeed, the artist’s inclusion in the monumental British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers selection—curated by Ekow Eshun, launching in Coventry in October 2026, and subsequently traveling to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle Gateshead—further proves the currency of this unique practice.

Realized with the powerful support of Flanders State of the Art and the Henry Moore Foundation, Hard Love confronts the poetics of material with the rationality of Brutalist architecture. Set to be experienced between May 15 and August 1, 2026, at Mechelsesteenweg 247 in Antwerp, this exhibition wrenches the artwork from being a mere object to look at, transforming it into a striking bodily and mental experience echoing within the rhythm of steel and the frequency of sound.