MJ Sharp

Our Disappearing Darkness: A Meditation on Losing the Night

September 3rd — December 6th 2024

College of Wooster Art Museum / Wooster, Ohio

Dr. Marianne Wardle, Director / Doug McGlumphy, Exhibition Preparator

Click on any image for more information about it. Exhibit tour.

A vanishingly small percentage of our evolutionary time as human beings has been spent in artificial light. For a large percentage of the world’s population, the experience of night is quickly becoming a boutique and privileged one. When we are robbed of night—from seeing the night sky that fueled the world’s mythologies to experiencing our own creaturely human adaptation to the dark— what are we missing? I was on a 2021/2022 Fulbright Scholar Award to collaborate with Professor Kevin Gaston at the Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Cornwall to try to answer that question.

Cornwall is remarkable both for its concentration of prehistoric sites and for its dark skies. Archeological evidence from some prehistoric megaliths suggests that people were visiting these sites in liminal light or at night. Could an artistic evocation of the experience of being at these sites at night help us better understand what we’re missing when we live our lives awash in light pollution? Dr. Andy Jones of the Cornwall Archaeological Unit and Carolyn Kennett, independent archaeoastronomer in Cornwall, helped me understand the larger context of these sites and current thinking on how they may have functioned. Two of the images are from the ancient ritualistic landscape of Avebury, to the east of Cornwall.

With heartfelt thanks to College of Wooster Art Museum Director Dr. Marianne Wardle, whose insights and support I've enjoyed throughout this project and whose dedicated vision and practical attention brought this work to the museum. A special thank-you to Exhibitions Preparator Doug McGlumphy, for his prodigious gifts of conceiving fresh approaches to exhibit experiences and realizing them in real time and space. Art Department Administrative Coordinator Tracy Mathys, with smart strategy and good cheer, kept all the moving parts moving smoothly.