The Witching Hour: Darkness and the Architectural Uncanny

Empty car parks, unlit alleyways and deserted graveyards are among architectural situations which have been examined by artists for a new exhibition about the power of buildings to intimidate and unsettle.

The collected works which go on display at London’s PM Gallery later this month are imbued with a sense of ‘the witching hour,’ a time of night when peculiar things can occur, according to exhibition creators.

The London streets where Jack the Ripper murdered his victims were the focal point for Toby De Silva’s series. Meanwhile David Rowan’s photographs show an abandoned newspaper printers and underground tunnels. Idris Khan’s ghostly overlaid images capture the alien silhouettes of gas containers.

Click on the image to preview pictures from the exhibition

Paintings and photographs accompany animations and more unusual techniques. Ravi Deepres’, for example, filmed figures around a beautiful smoke-filled house in high definition but also used 500-year-old camera obscura technology.

The Witching Hour: Darkness and the Architectural Uncanny opens 21 January until 12 March 2011 at the PM Gallery & Pitzhanger Manor, Walpole Park, Ealing, London ealing.gov.uk/pmgalleryandhouse