James Clarkson / Sleeper
Sleeper
2026
Archival inkjet printEdition of 20 (+3AP)
Paper: Marrutt Archival Matt 230gsm
Paper size: 420mm x 297mm
Free collection available from Newcastle upon Tyne or Sheffield.
Sleeper is a limited edition print made specially for the group exhibition RELAY [02] at Platform A, Middlesbrough. It is included in the exhibition alongside other new works by Clarkson including floor based sculpture, False Autumn and a related wall based sculptural assemblage also titled Sleeper.
Sleeper is drawn from a larger body of work by the same name - a photographic essay published in book form by the artist in 2025. The work examines the relationship between cognitive labour, sleep and the permeability of dreams. The publication features an introductory text by Alexander Harding
‘Clarkson created Sleeper amid redundancy consultations during his administrative day job, where he regularly appropriated the office scanner, an emblem of capitalist efficiency, and transformed it into a tool of resistance and creative disruption. The resulting suite of images reclaim moments of artistic expression from the monotony of routine, portraying a working body suspended between his contractual obligation and a drive toward self-expression.
Days blur into indistinguishable copies, tasks repeat, agency dissolves. Over time, the tedium of work can stretch into an inescapable, unyielding rhythm, bending every other aspect of life to its will; so much so, that any disruption to this treadmill feels seismic. Just as you close your eyes, the thought of it lingers.
It’s within this condition that James Clarkson’s Sleeper exists – it’s a record of many subtle insurgencies. Stolen moments of autonomy amid the oppressive uniformity of day-to-day labour. The photographs in ‘Sleeper’ feature a spectral figure caught mid-task, drained, burnt out. Ground down by the relentlessness of work. Lost in the drab labyrinth of the office, the figure has snatched a fleeting moment for themself, illuminated only by the mechanical sweep of the scanner’s sensor.'
Alexander Harding
James Clarkson (b. 1987) is an artist based in Sheffield, UK. Clarkson’s work explores contemporary office work as a condition that shapes everyday life. Working with sculpture and photography, he draws on his own personal experience of cognitive labour to examine how work structures time, attention and how its logics extend beyond the workplace. Using the aesthetics of digital administration and office environments, Clarkson considers how productivity and rest are entangled, and how the pressures of work leave lasting traces on our environments and sense of agency.
For further information about Sleeper please visit the artist's website