Night Class is an installation of photographs and sculpture that creates a temporary formal space where overlooked forms of labour are acknowledged / an exhibition of new works that responds to photography’s role in making visible hierarchies of labour and representation within the institution. 

The work was made over the period of a year onsite at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland is an institution with an official status; it hosts a canonised collection of art and formal state functions. Night Class responds to its hidden archive of material and to the underrecognized fabric of the building, which is imprinted with a series of informal histories. Jan McCullough’s work is informed by her interactions with an index of prior actions and traces of other forms of activity: craft, painting, decorating and carpentry courses that took place for students at Crawford during its time as an art school [at night]; and the interventions and work of technicians and caretakers that have been part of the maintenance of the building for over a hundred years. Night Class represents a personal performance; Jan McCullough entered into the building with a camera, and learnt to build, reframe, construct and record acts and traces on her own at night, alongside the caretakers and cleaning staff; a night class of her own.