Playing Out
Hannah Platt
👀 17 May - 15 June 2025
Opening
17 May, 3pm - 6pm
Exhibition open daily
18 May - 15 June 2025
Playing Out invites you to look closer at the places you think you already know, and encourages you to connect with your own sense of place and play. (Hannah Platt)
Threshold presents Playing Out, a solo exhibition of new work by Leeds based artist and photographer Hannah Platt. Playing Out is co-curated by Julia McKinlay and Jonathan Orlek
Hannah Platt’s work looks closely at incidental moments in our local environments, drawing attention to colourful signage, assemblages of furniture, and dynamic architectural features in our high streets and residential areas. Her work draws out humorous and playful human gestures in public space. Red-bricked terraces are a staple subject for Hannah, and so we have invited her to exhibit at Threshold to take this a step further and locate her photographic practice in our outdoor gallery space for sculpture in the middle of a traditional Leeds terrace.
Argie Terrace is undeniably one of the most perfect places to show my work. I’ve lived and breathed Burley Park for the majority of my adult life. I have such rich memories of the layered, alive nature of living in a Leeds back to back, the daily rituals, the neighbours nearby echoes and the sense of life that spills out into the streets are moments I’ll hold onto for a long time. (HP)
This exhibition marks a new step in Hannah’s work; instead of observing and documenting the life of LS4, her work will now be amongst the type of spaces that she usually photographs, creating a playful exhibition of sculptures and photographs that mirror the locality back on itself.
My work has always been rooted in place and nostalgia, and Playing Out is a lively continuation of that, expanding familiar ideas of our neighbourhoods, play and everyday encounters into something more sculptural and interactive.Through bold colours, textures and salvaged materials I hope to blur the boundaries between the artwork and the environment, encouraging visitors to engage with the installation playfully and reflectively. (HP)
Hannah is known as a socially engaged and photographic artist, however recent works have begun to expand spatially. Her solo exhibition Take A Seat (2024) invited viewers to make use of a carefully curated array of furniture to view a body of photographs documenting the doorstep chairs commonly found on the streets of Naples. An accompanying limited edition pack of cards extended this artwork more widely and invited the viewer to play with the artwork. We are delighted to invite Hannah to continue exploring the spatial possibilities of her work at Threshold, and to take a playful approach to an outdoor spatial typology which other residents use as a garden, a playground, a workshop, a dumping ground, or a space to relax and expand domestic life.
This is my first time experimenting within a more sculptural approach to my photography practice, and what a setting to respond to. It's been exciting to work on a larger and more tactile scale. I’ve found, salvaged and upcycled everything included in Playing Out, from swing sets and skipping ropes to odd bits of metal and googly eyes, working in a way that feels instinctive, imaginative and full of character. That resourcefulness, making something joyful out of what’s already around me, really echoes the very spirit of playing out as a kid. (HP)
Threshold Editions
An accompanying publication titled ‘Playing Out’ will be launched on Saturday 17 March at the private view event and will be available to purchase for £12 through Threshold Editions.
The publication includes new photographs by Hannah Platt in response to Burley Park, LS4; a limited edition inkjet print signed by the artist; an essay by researcher Emily Cuming on the history of back-to-back housing in Leeds and an interview between researcher Jonathan Orlek and Hannah Platt. This publication has been supported by City Lab, a research lab within the Institute of Art and Technology at Liverpool John Moores University.
A limited sculpture edition will also be launched during the exhibition, follow our Instagram account for more information.
Threshold Editions publishes affordable sculpture editions and publications by artists working with sculpture and generates income for future exhibitions at Threshold.
About the artist
Hannah Platt is a visual artist and photographer based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Her work is rooted in place, play and the everyday, often documenting her immediate surroundings with a quick, instinctive eye and a well-worn iPhone. Hannah explores narrative through self-publishing and printed projects, she has released a number of sold-out publications over the past decade, In Bloom (2014), You’re in America now Honey (2015), Out of Order (2021), Take a Seat (2024), About Town (co-created with Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds Arts and Minds, 2025), culminating in her photobook project Nosey Parker, published by RRB Photobooks with a foreword by Martin Parr.
Hannah’s style is unmistakably bold, bright, and full of mischief, often drawing on nostalgia and humour to create work that feels both familiar and surprising. In early 2024, Hannah independently curated her first solo exhibition Take a Seat, transforming East Street Arts project space into an indulgent and intimate setting to celebrate the launch of her self published deck of cards, which showcased found and photographed chairs in Naples, Italy - a show which encouraged people to sit, share and play.
She’s exhibited at Leeds Art Gallery as part of Leeds Artist Show, collaborated with Open Eye Gallery in their Crossing Sectors programme, and contributed to Miniclick’s Women in Photography mentoring group.
Alongside her personal practice, Hannah is committed to community engagement and co-creation. She’s delivered workshops, photo walks and socials with local groups and organisations including Leeds Art Gallery, the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art University, East Street Arts, Take It Easy Lab and Swarthmore Education Centre, and leads an open collaborative project, Just for Fun, inviting others to engage more playfully with their neighbourhoods. 👅
︎ @hannahbplatt