The Long Dark

A new exhibition which promises to blend modern art with medieval inspiration, and give several emerging artists their UK debuts in the process, is coming to Kettle's Yard this summer. The Long Dark, which opens on July 17th, will bring together the work of nine contemporary artists who work in a range of media, including painting, sculpture and photography. Together, their pieces explore a revival in late medieval, gothic art and ideas, while at the same time bending the style's aesthetic rules for a modern audience. The starting point for the exhibition is "On The Nature Of Gothic Architecture", an 1853 essay by the influential critic and thinker, John Ruskin. Writing at a time when architecture and the decorative arts in Britain were being remodelled by mechanical methods of production, Ruskin championed the pre-modern workmanship and approaches of the Gothic era, equating this with a "truthfulness" in the way in which buildings of the period in particular were designed. Drawing on this tradition, the artists in The Long Dark employed the devices of 20th century modernism, but also a deeper, Gothic sensibility. Alongside modernist themes, the work offers hints of ideas, values and even superstitions belonging to a much earlier period.