Undershed: One year in

Crack open the bubbles – we've recently marked a year of Undershed being open!   

It’s been an eventful year - we’ve welcomed 10 artists and studios from 6 countries, stretched over 27 weeks of programming. In alphabetical order – the opening exhibition Sing the Body Electric brought us Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts, Christopher Samuel, Margaret Salmon, Sanne De Wilde Vincent Morrisset / AATOAA and Yeseul Song. And then the spring rolled around with ScanLAB Projects and Framerate: Pulse of the Earth, alongside Duncan Speakman’s Only Expansion taking people outside. Then Air Giants landed in August with their wild and friendly Hothouse Laboratory, finally followed by Anagram with Impulse: Playing with Reality in October 2025.  

The work has ranged from interactive installations to VR, from multi-screen video installation to robotic inflatables – and we’ve sold 7743 tickets to audience members ranging from toddlers to grandparents, each one bringing their own personal universe into our space and bringing it to life.  

As a team, we’ve sometimes described this first year as a period of carrying out R&D on the practice of immersive exhibition itself. While the artworks themselves have all been high-quality finished pieces, the way we present them has been an iterative journey of discovery. This kind of live process is a scary thing to do. It is risky, it is public and it fundamentally demands that we stay alert at all times, watching carefully and being willing to take it on the nose when things don’t go perfectly. So, a timely question might be - why do it?   

Instead of sinking into platitudes about the value of taking risks – there is something very specific about R&D around presenting work that asks for participation from the audience. More than any other art form, we need people to feel comfortable, inspired and to take a step forwards – both physically, metaphorically and emotionally. Working out how to enable this is never something that's possible to do in theory (however good you think you are). You just have to try something... and then watch and listen to what happens, putting aside all your expectations and desires that get in the way of being able to observe how it really is for people who come into the space. The way we’ve tried to do this is both by choosing work that is well made, interesting and relevant to people – but also by thinking deeply about how the space is designed, what the materials are (as little plastic and shiny reflective surfaces as possible), how the Gallery Assistants talk to people (with warmth and in-depth knowledge about the work), making sure there’s somewhere to sit down, giving people enough time to rest with whatever emerges for them...the list is long, and the live process of discovery continues.  

Where there was once a tourist information office selling Bristol-branded mugs covered in hot air balloons - there are now walls in different places, and a carefully lit space, calm and quiet despite nestled in the centre of the hustle and bustle on the Harbourside. 

We hope that 2026 brings people, laughter, insight and warmth - and brilliant artists both homegrown and internationally renowned to the shores of Bristol harbour.   

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