'The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be’  - Leonard Cohen, ‘Anthem’

Start Again I Hear Them Say takes its title from Leonard Cohen’s Anthem, drawing on the lyric’s quiet insistence on renewal. The work reflects artist Harriet Gillett’s interest in cyclical time—the idea that each day resets, regardless of what has passed or what is yet to come.

The image is cropped from the artists’ painting Two for Joy, which depicts a restless interior scene: a figure shifting across a sofa while birds patterned on the wallpaper appear to animate the space. Gillett painted two versions of the scene, one dark and blurred, the other lighter and more composed, echoing fluctuating mental states and emotional registers.

Within the print, the birds become a central metaphor. Traditionally associated with transition and spiritual passage, they suggest movement between states: darkness and light, agitation and calm, despair and hope. As creatures that inhabit both land and sky, they embody threshold spaces.

Rather than offering resolution, Start Again I Hear Them Say holds this moment of transition — a reminder of continuity, of beginning again.

Produced in a limited edition of 100, the print extends Harriet Gillett’s ongoing exploration of memory, atmosphere and shifting perspective.

Learn more about artist Harriet Gillett