By Rachel Jones. Pictures courtesy of Luke Shears.
For most of us, sleep is a necessity rather than a subject of curiosity. For artist Kitt, it has become the basis of an immersive new exhibition. Drawing on the building’s 700-year history and the stories of those who have passed through it, the exhibition invites visitors to reconsider sleep not as a private act, but as a shared experience capable of building connection, intimacy and community.
The project began with an unexpected moment. During an early visit to God’s House Tower, Southampton, Kitt encountered a 30-hour ukulele marathon in which musicians slept in shifts on camp beds while the music continued uninterrupted. The unusual scene sparked a fascination with the building’s long relationship with communal rest.
“I loved this unexpected use of the building as a social sleeping place,” Kitt says. “It made me think about all the other times the building has been a venue for this type of communal slumber.”
Over the centuries, God’s House Tower has served as a watchtower, hospital, prison and cultural venue. People have slept there for countless reasons: work, care, confinement, creativity and necessity. For Kitt, these layers of experience form part of what they call “Emotional Heritage,” feelings, memories and atmospheres that accumulate in places over time and continue to shape how we experience them today.
“In my wider work, I’m interested in this stuff which I call Emotional Heritage,” they explain. “To me, it means the inheritance of feelings in specific places and communities.”
That idea runs throughout While We Slumber. Beds, sleeping bags, handmade objects, scents and soundscapes transform the gallery into a space that feels surprisingly domestic. Visitors are encouraged to sit, rest, listen and linger. Rather than observing from a distance, they become participants in the atmosphere itself.
The exhibition also challenges assumptions many of us hold about sleep. While contemporary Western society often treats sleeping as a deeply private activity, Kitt’s research revealed that communal sleep has historically been far more common. Shared sleeping spaces were once a normal feature of everyday life, shaped only relatively recently by changing ideas around privacy, hygiene and morality.
Yet this is not an exercise in nostalgia. Instead, the exhibition asks a contemporary question: what might we gain from creating more opportunities for togetherness?
“I got fascinated by asking ‘what about protecting our rights to, and desires for, community, intimacy and togetherness?'” says Kitt.
That commitment to connection is central to Kitt’s wider practice. Working collaboratively with communities for more than a decade, they describe their approach as “Mess Making as Social Glue,” creating situations where people can be creative, vulnerable and playful together. Throughout While We Slumber, visitors are invited to contribute, make and participate rather than simply consume.
The exhibition’s sensory richness reflects this ethos. A breathing soundscape created with composer Bridie Jackson and Kitt’s children fills the space. Lavender scents, inspired by participants in a research sleepover held at the tower, drift through the building via handmade soaps and textiles. Elsewhere, visitors can create their own “Spell Shells” and contribute to the evolving life of the exhibition.
For Kitt, these elements are about more than aesthetics. They are tools for creating emotional connections and expanding accessibility, ensuring that visitors can engage through sound, touch, smell and making, as well as through sight.
Asked what they hope people take away from the exhibition, Kitt’s answer is characteristically generous: connections to each other, connections to God’s House Tower and perhaps new ways of understanding their own emotional relationships with place.
While We Slumber is showing at God’s House Tower, Southampton, until Monday 12 October 2026. There are also a couple of associated events right at the end of the exhibition. A sleepover with Kitt — overnight on 10–11 October and an artist-led tour and Q&A with Kitt — Sunday 11 October, 2–3 pm, a celebration marking the end of the exhibition. Visitors are invited to explore the exhibition, participate in creative activities and experience the atmosphere of communal rest for themselves.
At a time when loneliness, isolation and social fragmentation are increasingly common experiences, While We Slumber feels quietly radical. It offers rest not as withdrawal from the world, but as an opportunity to reconnect with it — and with one another.
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