In Light of Waking by Hannah Guy

This photographic installation by Hannah Guy offers a contemplative environment in which visitors can consider the residual life of dreams, the images, sensations, and narrative fragments that persist beyond sleep. 

At the centre of the display are four new photographic works from Guy’s ongoing series ‘Croak Dream’. Developed from anonymously submitted dreams gathered through a citywide open call - with stickers in Beeston, Hyde Park, and Leeds City Centre -  these light box framed images are constructed through staged tableaux that merge personal recollection with shared symbolic motifs. By drawing multiple written submissions into single composite scenes, Guy explores how individual dream material can reveal collective patterns of fear, desire, and emotional memory across the city of Leeds. 

Through prompts designed for writing, drawing, or collage, visitors are encouraged to contribute their own dream-memories, whether recently fleeting or deeply imprinted from the past. These responses will inform a new body of work currently in development for 2026, extending the project’s inquiry into how private nocturnal experiences might be held, re-imagined, and understood within a communal framework.

This presentation is part of the Accelerator Bursary 2025, funded by Leeds Art Fund and delivered in partnership by Leeds Art Gallery and Assembly House.