Sleep Walk Sleep Talk
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk is a lightbox installation by artist Suki Chan, launching at the Museum of London on 7 December 2011.
The display has been created to complement the major exhibition, Dickens and London, which opens on 9 December, Sleep Walk Sleep Talk comprises a series of evocative, emblematic stills from Chan’s 2010 video installation Sleep Walk Sleep Talk.
The piece follows in the footsteps of Dickens’ essay Night Walks in creating a dreamlike portrait of London by night. Presented as a series of large-format photographic light boxes and a neon-light text, Chan’s images include hazy, shimmering panoramas of the nocturnal city, shots of skaters reclaiming the streets after dark and weary commuters on the top-deck of the night bus. A neon text ‘When I go home the day becomes my night’, drawn from an interview Chan made with a security-guard, expresses the world of night-working.
Suki Chan said: "Sleep Walk Sleep Talk came about from a feeling I often have as I walk through the city at night - a feeling that my every step has already been anticipated and that although I might be venturing somewhere new, there's a sense that something directs my movements."
Curator Francis Marshall said: “We are delighted to be showing this installation by Suki Chan. Over the past few years, she has built a reputation for her subtle and thoughtful films and installations. The images of London she is presenting here are both revealing and seductively beautiful.”
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk originated as a commission by Film and Video Umbrella, part of Free to Air, a four-year programme supported by London Councils and Arts Council England.
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk is on display in the Museum of London’s foyer from 7 December to 10 June 2012.
