This book is a study of the things we cannot see. It is an ode to the suburbs and the creatures that come to life within it’s mundanity.
I spent my childhood alone with views of rooftops and chimney stacks, wondering where all the creatures from my storybooks were, why I couldn’t see them in the suburban landscape where they so clearly belonged. Now what I’m grown this idea keeps me company, and during a year of solitude, I decided my hometown needed monsters. The result is this book. It is where I live, what I see, and how I wish it could be. I call it Gloaming.
-Keaton Henson
Coinciding with the release of his much-anticipated graphic novel, Pocko produced an exhibition of the same name at London’s Blackall Studios. The exhibition featured a range of original drawings from Keaton, and centred around a unique and intimate one-on-one live performance from Keaton, who struggles with playing live in a conventional sense.
Inside the gallery space, visitors found a dollhouse-esque installation, designed and built by Henson and the architectural artist Joely Brammer. The ‘Gloaming’ cabin was built to give a unique and intimate one-on-one live performance from Keaton, who struggles with playing live in a conventional sense. To those lucky few, the experience of a private session from Keaton was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The deep guilt you feel inside you wants Keaton to share his soul with you, and he does, happily, sitting upon a stool staring out at you. You sit, you wait, he plays, and your hearts broken – all in less than five minutes. You spend your time, post performance, realising that you’ll never get to see an experience that parallels this.
– Robbie Wojciechowski, The Guardian