Dutch artist Boris Maas responds to the mystery and atmosphere of the moonlit paintings of Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw with his own immersive light installation and photographs.

As part of the Light Night Leeds programme reaching across the University of Leeds’ campus, visitors can experience two paintings by Grimshaw from the University of Leeds’ collection before entering Maas’ immersive installation, which is divided into two parts.

Act I, ‘The nightlife series’, comprises contemporary nocturnal photographs of locations painted by Grimshaw, seen both in sharp focus and with the ‘circles of confusion’ that are produced by an out-of-focus lens. Act II, ‘You have seen nothing yet’, is a mobile with suspended glass lenses in a variety of colours inspired by Grimshaw’s palette. A light source passing through it creates what Maas calls a “dynamic night opera”: a poetic interpretation of the spectacle of changing light at night, echoing the ships, carriages and pedestrians that move through Grimshaw’s canvases. 

A recent rehang of works from the University’s collection can also be seen in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, plus the newly-opened major solo exhibition Mary Griffiths: Everything and all of us.

Part of the Smeaton300 festival, ‘You have seen nothing yet’ has been supported by LEEDS 2023 (Leeds Culture Trust) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK.