Launch Event: While We Slumber By Kitt
Exhibitions, Free, In Person
Friday 14th August 2026 6:00pm - 9:00pm
God's House Tower, Town Quay Road, Southampton, SO14 2NY
Join us for the launch of While We Slumber by Kitt (aka Lady Kitt). An exhibition commissioned by ‘a space’ arts at God’s House Tower.
The exhibition begins with a simple question: what do we really share when we sleep in close proximity? Drawing on the familiar rituals of sleepovers – midnight feasts, whispered conversations, star-gazing, makeshift forts and sleeping bag stair toboggans – Kitt explores how social sleeping can deepen emotional connection and reshape our understanding of care, intimacy and belonging.
Central to Kitt’s research is the idea of ‘emotional heritage’: the way feelings accumulate within buildings, and how they are shaped, shared, and passed on through the communities who inhabit them. At God’s House Tower, this inheritance is layered and complex. Through archival and site-based research, Kitt traces a history of communal slumber within the building – from incarceration in the 1700s and 1800s, to more recent events such as artist residencies and a 24 hour ukulele jam.
While We Slumber invites audiences to consider (and experience) how social sleeping might alter our relationship to shared spaces and to one another. Through this lens, the exhibition becomes a reflective, sensory exploration of how buildings remember, and how those memories are shaped and reshaped through collective acts of being together in vulnerability and rest.
Co-Authors
- Soundscape recorded and mixed by composer Bridie Jackson
- Sleep sounds by Finn Ratford, Ada Ratford and Nick Pirce
- Access support by Sara Li and Edwin Li
- Fabrication by Kane Applegate
About the Artist
Disabled sculptor Kitt (AKA ‘Lady Kitt’) does ‘Mess Making As Social Glue’, driven by insatiable curiosity about the social functions of art. Kitt’s work is shaped by a semi-nomadic childhood (which included not receiving formal education until age 14). They work on long term, collaborative endeavours aiming to create situations where sculptures offer solutions, solace, connections and mischief.
Recent / current work has been commissioned by The Estate of Gordon Matta Clark, USA, & No More Nowt, Co Durham (“Feral Alchemies” 2025-6), QUEERCIRCLE, London (“Drag Declares Emergency” 2024), Craftspace, Birmingham (“Drag Declares Emergency” 2022-23) & BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (“enSHRINE” 2021). Kitt’s work has been exhibited internationally including Atlanta Contemporary (USA), Saatchi Gallery (UK) & National Centre on Restorative Justice (USA). In 2026 their work will be presented at Art Basel, Miami (USA) by David Fireman Galley (New York) and The Estate of Gordon Matta Clark. Kitt’s work has been collected by institutions including the Social Art Library, Durham University & the Magistrates Association. They previously served on MIMA Advisory Board, as Crafts Council trustee and co-lead of Social Art Network UK. Kitt has been shortlisted for the 2025 Creative Health ‘Practising Well Award’ and was NE Culture Awards Visual Artist of the Year finalist, 2024. Their work has won the VAMHN Arts Award 2023, been longlisted for the 2023, 2024 & 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize.
Last year someone involved in one of Kitt’s projects said being part of it “… made my world feel alive again”.