Drawing the Night In

Henny Burnett ~ Susan Francis ~ Nick Grellier ~ Debbie Lee ~ Prudence Maltby ~ Corinna Spencer

As the hour changes and the autumn light gives way to darkness, six artists come together to mark the drawing in of night. Their diverse and seductive interpretations, united by the subject of night’s blackness and quiet shadows, explore and reveal the idiosyncrasies, subtleties, and truths of the dark hours.

The subject of night – deepest night – is a dark and personal one. Little is known of this ‘other world’, a tapestry of shadows that absorbs a third of our lived experience. Research suggests that sleep was traditionally split into two segments, with a natural waking period in the middle of the night – echoes of this, scientists say, may be what keeps us awake in the early hours when worries and unfettered thoughts take over.

On a historical note, 18th century scholar, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, is quoted in A. Roger Ekirch’s research on night, as stating ‘our entire history […] is only the history of waking men.’ Perhaps night, therefore, is the domain of women, unchartered, unspoken, unsaid. Seductive, revealing, private, both safe and unsafe? Six artists explore these questions and more, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own private experience of night.