Night Hours – New York

Architecture of Devotion Exhibition
In this world premier work, NIGHT HOURS explores turn-of-the-century family mausoleums in Milan’s Monumental Cemetery (Cimitero Monumentale de Milano) as architecture of devotion. In the Catholic Church, Night Hours are fixed times of prayer in the Roman Catholic Church that take place during the hours of darkness. The work is in three short movements represented by selected Psalms: Vespers (Psalms 1-8), Compline (Psalms 4, 90, and 133), and Lauds (Psalms 94, 83, and 95). It begins at the moment of sunset and ends upon the edge of dawn. The texts of the Psalms are transformed into rain (tears), which brings the memorials to life, cleanses them, and then washes them from our memory once more. The music, titled “Into the Light” is a devotional hymn, intended to mark the observance of the passing of a loved one from this world into the next.

Gowanus Ballroom
Brooklyn, NY 2011

Concept + Drawings
Daniel K. Brown
Animation
Johann Nortje
Music
Mark K. Johnson