Jasper Knight, ‘Time out of mind’, 2024, enamel, gloss acrylic and gesso on linen, 80 x 60 cm

Jasper Knight’s new series is based on stills from the 1945 black-and-white noir film ‘The Lost Weekend’ directed by Billy Wilder. The film focuses on a character who is consumed by temptation while visiting New York for a weekend.

Knight often centre his series around a single subject matter, whether it be the discarded Renault car factory at Ile Seguin, an island at Boulogne-Billancourt on the western edge of Paris; the dilapidated Docklands of Melbourne; the Junk and the Jumbo Kingdom restaurant that sank within the great Hong Kong harbour; or the artist’s sinking family boat depicted in his exhibition Joan Sea.

However in this case ‘The Lost Weekend’, is the first body of work by the artist to follow a single protagonist as opposed to a location or object, acting as a survey of one character in different stages as he descends into the depths of despair.