In chests, nests and shells
Essay 'In chests, nests and shells'
Night Café is thrilled to announce 'In chests, nests and shells', presenting new works by George Richardson, Lavinia Harrington, and Steffen Kern. Taking a poetic reading of spaces, the exhibition considers them not as a site of function or utility, but as a place loaded with emotion, memory, and imagination. The exhibition will take place from February 4 until March 6, 2026, at 162 New Cavendish Street.
“And the old house
I feel its russet warmth
Comes from the senses to the mind.”
- Jean Wahl, Poèmes.
'In chests, nests and shells' approaches space not as function, but as something felt. Domestic interiors become containers of memory, sensation, and imagination. Corners, stairways, cupboards, and shelves are more than structures. They hold time.
Drawing loosely on Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, the exhibition considers how lived spaces exceed rational understanding. He developed this idea that spaces, especially the domestic space, is more than something architectural: it’s emotional and psychological. A crack in a door, an overfilled drawer, a shadow on the wall can trigger an emotional response before thought. A strong feeling, a memory, imagining a future.
George Richardson recontextualises familiar domestic forms through sculptural interventions, where everyday objects become quietly uncanny. Lavinia Harrington works with soft, vulnerable materials to materialise sensation, opening space for care, empathy, and association. Steffen Kern renders fragments of interiors in pencil and charcoal, where shadow, light, and colour evoke atmospheres that feel remembered rather than observed.
Together, the exhibition suggest that space is not only something we inhabit, but something we feel.
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