Art Exhibition

About

ROTATOR is Jakob Rowlinson’s first institutional project, presented as an installation in Yorkshire Sculpture Park‘s Visitor Centre and a solo exhibition, REVIVERat The Art House in Wakefield, having developed from a 2024 collaborative residency between both organisations.


Spanning across the two venues, this new body of work weaves together complex material histories, explores the ecology of the Park’s landscape, and continues the artist’s interest in queering the archive. Rowlinson merges the sacred and profane, drawing on religious and folkloric imagery such as angels, demons and green men, and combining them with contemporary queer fashion and fetish references.


Suspended above the Visitor Centre concourse, ROTATOR features three large-scale leather sculptures that act as guardians of the threshold between indoors and outdoors. Coloured using handmade oak-gall dyes foraged from trees within the Park, they reference Yorkshire’s historic importance in the leather tanning industry. At the heart of each sculpture is a two-faced head, like modern Janus figures. Created from reclaimed leather garments that are relics of bodily history, the material is revived in both form and meaning. Spiralling out from this central point are wing-like forms whose patterns draw inspiration from orange-tip and comma butterflies that Rowlinson saw in the Park, and whose metamorphic cycles represent themes of self-renewal and transformation.


ROTATOR coincides with Rowlinson’s solo exhibition REVIVER at The Art House on display 18 July – 12 September 2026.


Venue opening hours

Monday : Closed

Tuesday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Wednesday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Thursday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Friday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Saturday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Sunday : 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Access facilities

  • Accessible Car Parking
  • Accessible Toilet
  • Assistance Dogs Welcome
  • Baby Changing Facilities
  • Changing Places Facility
  • Step Free Access
  • Wheelchair Accessible

Venue Details

Find us at

West Bretton, Wakefield, WF4 4LG

Phone

01924832631

Email

info@ysp.org.uk

Open in Google Maps Visit website