Francis Hesketh

Francis Hesketh is a writer and artist from Belfast who primarily writes of home. This project focuses on creating the ideal style for the digitalisation and online self-publishing of a serialised long poem called Sad Cat Memories about skeletons, death, and a brave scaredy-cat using a laptop.

During his residency, Francis will digitise a series of poems that he will maintain and update annually in this long term project. Having written the first part, he can. now experiment with photography and image manipulation, and creative web design, to explore ways to present Sad Cat Memories on an interactive website. It is a multi-media project, blending the words and canvas of the poem with photos, illustrations, animations, and visual tricks.

The story in question revolves around a cat learning to use a laptop after all the humans disappear and skeleton animals begin creeping around the streets. It's about death and kinship, and our animals' relationships with us, instead of our relationships with them.

Residency Period: August - November ‘26