Exhibition: 24/7

A host of international contemporary artists and designers will hold a mirror up to a world in which we are sleeping less, complex systems are exerting control, and the pull of the screen is disrupting our instincts to daydream and pay attention to the world around us, and each other. The exhibition is inspired by the book of the same title by art critic and essayist Jonathan Crary (Verso, 2013).

Contributors include Marcus Coates, Mat Collishaw, Harun Farocki, Pierre Huyghe, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Kelly Richardson, Pilvi Takala, Addie Wagenknecht, and ten artists and designers from Somerset House Studios, including Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard.

It is estimated that Britons worked 37 more hours in 2017 than in 2010 (the equivalent of one week’s extra work for many people)1, with 200,000 working days lost annually to insufficient sleep.2 Living in the glow of blue light, people in the UK now check their smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes, and half of all UK adults say their life would be boring if they could not get online access.3

Curated by Somerset House and Sarah Cook, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey from the cold light of the moon to the fading warmth of the sunset through a series of interactive installations and interrogations of 24/7 life.