Nightfall
A Mixed Media Exploration Of Urban Nature
by Rebecca Chesney
The Lowry
July 9 – October 23 2005
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
Nightfall is a unique project by Lancashire artist Rebecca Chesney, who has spent the last year documenting aspects of nature and wildlife on the doorstep of The Lowry in Salford Quays. The result is a dramatic mixed media exhibition that captures a diverse array of wildlife more typically associated with a suburban English garden rather than a setting dominated by brick, steel and glass.
Chesney, better known as a sculptor, swapped working with stone, wood and conventional photography for night-vision cameras, digital video and night-lights, to try and uncover the work of Mother Nature that occurs after dark in the urban jungle - and in the process has revealed a hidden world of vibrant nocturnal activity.
To present her discoveries Rebecca Chesney has used highly contrasted black & white photographs of hovering moths, spider’s webs and plant-life. This is combined with night-time digital video that captures fleeting visits from rabbits, mice and a vast variety of insect life.
Further, complementing the visual work, is an array of physical exhibits all evidence of urban wildlife found within a 500 metre radius around The Lowry. This includes beautifully preserved dead insects, skulls, bones and fragments of fur from small mammals. Also included are the remains of small birds found near a nest constructed of discarded man-made materials which Chesney discovered on of top The Lowry’s iconic steel tower. All of this physical evidence illustrates nature’s determination to create habitation in spite of a repressive man-made environment.
Rebecca has also presented some of the photography in the form of small back-lit cases which, when peered into, reveal a slide image of ‘creepy-crawlies’ - echoing the childhood past-time of collecting dead insects and presenting them to squeamish friends and siblings in matchboxes.
Commenting on Nightfall Rebecca said: “I think the fact that no-one really knows what occurs in the early hours of the morning in the urban environment made the project fascinating and this was always about the unknown. Many local people talked of a menagerie of natural life in the area and I didn’t know if I’d be filming fish in the Quays, bats flying overhead or photographing foxes.
“This feeling was confirmed on my very last night. I had packed up all my night-view equipment when a fox nonchalantly walked past me – like he knew I was finished. I quickly tried to capture him with a pocket instamatic and but still had no joy in getting the shot I wanted.”
Despite urban wildlife’s’ instinctive and elusive nature so Nightfall still gives us a unique insight into what happens after dark in the man-made world. From slugs and snails busying themselves on the damp concrete of the quayside at midnight to a curious hedgehog licking the lens of a video camera at four o’clock in the morning - with Nightfall Rebecca Chesney has uniquely illustrated that when the noise and disruption of mankind has vanished even the most sterile, artificial environment still comes alive.
Nightfall is part of the Spotlight Programme supported by the Arts Council England, North West.
Posted on Friday, 01 July 2005 under Press Galleries Press