Night Cracks (2024) opens with the words, “Listening to the rain play an impressive percussion piece on the attic window while I tremble in bed, the thoughts piling up in my head.”. These words help to bring the viewer into what seems to be a recollection of memories as suggested by the text: “dreadful memory” and to have them “disappearing into the lost expanse”. The section we have highlighted suggests these memories to be terrifying or traumatising.
The linocut itself is monochromatic, and only one layer helps to guide the viewer from the text towards the figure, who seems confused. It also helps to add to the dread of the night due to the domination of the negative space within the composition. The figure has question marks coming from their face, with arrows pointing down from the brain area as they think of ways to remove their awful memories. This is within these “spongy confines” of the memory space as it seems that the figure is overwhelmed with thought and is asking themselves why it is so hard to remove these questions. Perhaps these memories had prompted themselves when the figure was attempting to sleep- and thus, the night cracks into them.
Overall, the work invites the viewer to reflect on their memories and, by extension, their existence. It successfully understands the anxiety that night may bring when it overwhelms you with thoughts, memories and intrusive thoughts. This anxiety is suggested to be at its height as it is said to wait for a “trap door to open”, where the struggle has intensified and the figure is desperate to destroy these thoughts.