Touring Exhibition: Last Night For Ever

The sculpture will reference fire as both a destructive and reconstructive force of nature. Sited inside the ruined great hall, which burned down in a fire in 1947, it will respond to histories of garden ruins, perspectives and optical illusions with the interior structure reminiscent of a model theatre. The renowned set designer Oliver Messel formerly lived in the house. Last Night For Ever was originally exhibited at The Garden Museum, London in 2009, responding to lost green space and the spectacular Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a once thriving public gardens between 1661-1859, sited by the Thames. The sculpture made connections between garden histories past and present, merging the visual trickery of the grotto first created in Renaissance Italy, with found objects and visual motifs from this location over time. The sculpture, whose title was taken from the name of the closing event at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens on 25th June 1859, will be exhibited again at three National Trust historic buildings and landscape gardens located in the South East of England, including Leith Hill Place, Nymans and Winkworth Arboretum from 5 April 2025 until 26 March 2026. (Tours subject to availability).