When Forms Come Alive

Spanning over 50 years of contemporary art, this exhibition at the Hayward Gallery highlights ways in which artists draw on familiar experiences of movement, flux and organic growth.

Inspired by sources ranging from a dancer’s gesture to the breaking of a wave, from a flow of molten metal to the interlacing of a spider’s web, the artworks in this exhibition conjure fluid and shifting realms of experience.

Undulating, drooping, erupting, cascading and promiscuously proliferating, these sculptures invite a tactile gaze, and trigger physical responses. In an era when our encounters are increasingly digitised and disembodied, these artworks call to mind the pleasures of gesture and movement, the poetics of gravity and the experience of sensation itself.

Featuring the work of 21 contemporary artists from around the world, this is a joyous celebration of sculpture and installation and the medium’s ability to capture the imagination.

Exhibition tours

Join a guided tour of the exhibition with the Hayward Gallery's tour guides every Wed at 2pm and Sat at 6pm.

Curator tours

Sat 10 Feb, 6pm: Anusha Mistry, Curatorial Assistant, Hayward Gallery
Wed 14 Feb, 2pm: Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery
Wed 21 Feb, 2pm: Anusha Mistry, Curatorial Assistant, Hayward Gallery

BSL tours

Join deaf artist Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq for a BSL guided tour of the exhibition. Find out more and book BSL tickets here
Sat 9 Mar, 6.30pm 
Sat 27 Apr, 6.30pm 

Relaxed Hours and tours

Tue 26 Mar, 10–3pm: Relaxed hours visit with additional support. Find out more and book Relaxed Hours tickets
Wed 3 Apr, 2pm: Relaxed tour led by Hayward Gallery tour guides.
Wed 1 May, 2pm: Relaxed tour led by Hayward Gallery tour guides.