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NightShaking with The Ingram Collection

8th July 2021

10 July – 19 September 2021

The Lightbox gallery and museum is delighted to present the new Upper Gallery exhibition NightShaking with The Ingram Collection (10 July – 19 September 2021). The exhibition is a creative collaboration using works from The Ingram Collection and contributions from contemporary artists Dr Chantal Powell and Dean Melbourne who work in the field of mythology, alchemy and depth psychology.

The concept of the Night Sea Journey symbolises a journey of self-discovery that one has to undertake in order to re-emerge on the other side with a renewed sense of self brought about by an inner awakening. This motif appears in mythology throughout the world and across centuries, yet the story is always similar. The hero travels, often in the belly of a beast or in a vessel, such as a boat or an ark, across a dark, primordial sea, mimicking the unseen course of the sun after it sets in the west and then magically reappears in the east.

Artists Powell and Melbourne have selected key works from The Ingram Collection that speak to this story and present them alongside their own explorations of the symbolic language of the unconscious. Melbourne uses the visual language of myth, folktale and landscape to look beyond ego and towards the shadow self. Powell’s use of processes and materials, such as elemental outdoor clay firing and metal casting, reflect her research into the alchemical process.

Symbols such as the boat, crow and labyrinth appear multiple times throughout the display. The exhibition highlights the way that artists work with these motifs and symbols to connect the viewers with their own inner worlds and the navigation of their respective Night Sea Journeys.

The image of Powell’s Bitchimin boat titled “Night Sea Journey” is shown in conversation with John Behan’s “Ghost Boat”. Similarly, Melbourne’s “Cult of the Depths” is juxtaposed with Graham Sutherland’s “Tin Mine, Various Aspects”, drawing parallels between the two works and the mine as motif for travelling into the depths of the unconscious.

The display reunites symbols and imagery which help viewers navigate the chaotic and disorientating experience of the Night Sea Journey – a journey that is necessary to achieve transformation. Visitors to the exhibition may relate to the lived experience of the artists, where creation, discovery and renewal emerge only after the darkness.

NightShaking with The Ingram Collection is on show at The Lightbox, from 10 July – 19 September 2021. Visitors are encouraged to pre-book specified timeslots in advance at to avoid having to wait if the galleries are full.