Carrie Hott | After Hour January 2015

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After Hours: After normal working hours, after closing time; also, after legal or established opening hours. For example, “I haven't time while the shop is open, but I can see you after hours”
-Dictionary.com

Before the widespread use of lamps, night was its own frontier, an isolated time that accommodated recuperation, time with family, or hidden activity, often around one light source. As artificial light sources became more widespread, and industrial labor developed on a larger scale, the night became an extension of the day, often enabling the force of extended productivity, greater output, and longer work hours. However, when possible, light after dark also made it possible to envision new possibilities, segment time for personal creative work, unsanctioned gatherings, often between women, and the development of relationships outside of family or a job.

Expanding on Hott’s ongoing work that often explores the relationship of artificial light to social experience, and drawing from the retail context of Temescal Alley, After-Hour re-envisions Interface Gallery as a lamp shop, perpetually after hours. Set up to shadow the familiar experience of a room full of objects for sale, the installation sidesteps the bright, sparkly retail experience for an imagining of what occurs when you’ve closed up shop. As a shadow of retail hours, unattended and lights out, After Hour brings together sculptural forms utilizing lamp shades and light fixtures to echo the experience of a lamp store, only the shop is closed, the curtains are drawn, and the lamps don’t work. Accompanying the objects is a site specific sound created by Hott in collaboration with musician Laura Steenberge, set to crescendo in intervals to mark the passing of the work-day clock.

The exhibition builds on Hott’s interest in the equalizing power of the dark, the historic role that the development of artificial light has played in self-organizing, and the ongoing and roving delineation of work time and personal time. In conjunction with the Happy Hour on January 15, Hott will be releasing an 'Hour After Reader', printed by COLPA Press and supported by Interface Gallery. The reader includes some images of the research that helped to inform the work created in the exhibition, as well as selections and contributions from other local and beyond after-hours workers including Luca Antonucci, BONANZA, Sofía Córdova, Aurora Crispin, ERNEST, Ian Dolton-Thornton,Brett Goodroad, Pablo Guardiola, Emily Hunt, Cybele Lyle, Martin Machado, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Emma Spertus, Stairwell's, Laura Steenberge, and Cassie Thornton. (After-hours workers meaning those who have a job and then make their work in their after-hours.)