The Attic

There are not only three floors to the museum, but a large attic-like room with white painted beams between which are placed six original drawings of characters from Gormenghast. Here we find Swelter the cook, his vast obese frame like 'rippling blubber' staring out at the viewer with a mixture of arrogance and contentment; he orders his kitchen urchins to do his bidding whenever he feels like it, and Steerpike the villain who stares malevolently in a sidelong glance.

The hirsute Countess looks down haughtily, while Fuschia the heroine appears ambiguous in her understanding of what is wrong within her own home. The limitless horizon that constitutes the confines of the castle, provides a home for these and others lost in its timelessness. The attic at the museum exactly matches what is required from the text; a world apart, but one we must explore in order to understand how the world operates. Despite the whiteness of the attic, the drawings almost lost within its confines, it is the perfect denouement to a magnificent exhibition, one that both haunts and thrills.