This is an archived event from Culture Days 2025.
Images
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![Top text reads: what keeps you up at night? Bottom text reads: The Sleeper. Side profile of face on moon, where flowers are blooming.]()
Shary Boyle, graphic artwork for The Sleeper
Shary Boyle's "The Sleeper: What keeps you up at night?"
In-person
Sculpture & installation Nature & outdoors Writing & literature InterdisciplinaryDate and time
This activity runs the duration of Culture Days.
Location
Erchless Estate at Oakville Museum, Oakville
8 Navy Street
Oakville, ON
Access
Free.
Offered in English.
About
Between September 19 – November 2, a life-sized, biodegradable cardboard figure embodying insomnia will be installed in the master bedroom of the colonial Erchless Estate at Oakville Museum. An accompanying poster asks viewers a simple question: "What keeps you up at night?"
Pencils and biodegradable paper will be provided for participants who would like to contribute their anonymous answers, to be inserted into the figure's hollow chest. Satellite receptacle stations will run concurrently in regional libraries, inviting the greater community to answer the same question. The library receptacles will be gathered and brought to the Erchless for the project's completion, when Boyle will bury the sculpture, with all the community concerns it contains. To compost the cycle of transformation and close the ritual, a "Moon Garden" (most beautiful at night) of white flowering spring bulbs will be planted on top of the burial site.
This garden can be visited by the public in spring 2026. As climate, economic, and political threats course through our days and nights, The Sleeper proposes an offline ritual to collectively unburden, and transform our private concerns.
Presented in partnership with the Town of Oakville and the Oakville Museum.
This program is part of the Ontario Culture Days 2025 Creatives in Residence series.
Links
- Shary Boyle - Creatives in Residence onculturedays.ca
Organizer
Ontario Culture Days
Ontario Culture Days is a not-for-profit organization that celebrates artists and cultural groups in our communities.
The Ontario Culture Days Festival is an annual celebration of arts, culture and heritage taking place each fall across the province. Each year, we work with organizers of all disciplines to produce this province-wide festival. Organizers host programs throughout Ontario and invite the public to participate for free.
This event is part of a hub:
Oakville Museum
Oakville Museum Oakville, ONEnjoy magnificent views and beautiful buildings, grounds and gardens at Erchless Estate. The Oakville Museum offers guided tours of the Chisholm family home, changing exhibitions, special events and programs that tell the fascinating storie...