A Sudden Extinction of Light, 2014, silkscreen on aniline goat leather, acrylic, galvanised steel, 202 x 500 cm. Photos: Sam Drake

This work draws together the 19th-century photographic iconography of hysteria with the lighting designs of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, following the discovery of Aalto-designed objects in the archives of the Freud Museum in London. The title of the work is derived from a photo caption used by Jean-Martin Charcot—neurologist and mentor to Sigmund Freud—in his staged demonstrations of hysteria. The referenced image illustrates how a hysterical woman might be induced into a cataleptic or lethargic state via exposure to a bright light. Displaying five of Aalto’s iconic light designs: A338 (Bilberry), A881 (Snow Bell), A805 (Angel Wing), A110 (Hand Grenade), A331 (Beehive), the silkscreens merge the abstract designs and their colloquial names with the materiality of goat leather—a material I use often for its association with both sharp peripheral vision and erratic behaviour. The lights are brought into contact with the dark fields they inhabit through the illusion that they, too, are constructed from leather.