Mary Kelly: We Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery presents pioneering conceptual artist Mary Kelly’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, We don’t want to set the world on fire, which explores the role of protest in her work and its power to effect change.

In the face of the current political landscape and the rise in authoritarian populism in Europe as well as the US, Kelly continues to analyse the past’s impact in shaping our understanding of the present. The title of the exhibition refers to Kelly’s 2019 site-specific project, Peace is the Only Shelter, a tribute to  Women Strike for Peace, an activist group founded in 1961 to mobilise women against nuclear weapons testing. Their innovative slogans, including We don’t want to  set the world on fire, were reenacted by Kelly in the desert region near the test sites where former protests took place.