Under the bed

November 2008 / Artist’s home

When I was 16, I stopped sleeping in my bed and began to spend my nights in a sleeping bag on the floor. It was one of those silent acts of rebellion by a non-confrontational person. It infuriated my mother; my best friend’s parents told her I must be a communist and she should be wary of me.

I used this episode from my youth to launch an exploration of sleep as an act of dissent, as one of a dwindling number of refuges from the imperatives of modern life.

Photo credits: John Davies, Pat Hulin.