Author: aeb248

     Investigation of a Dream-Like State explores the tensions and intersections between the gentleness of our dream-states and the harsh realities of everyday life. Artists in the exhibition explore different types of dreams, from dreams of aspiration and dreams conjured by the imagination, to the dreams we have at night.. Reality tends to get blurred by our own memories of it. We sometimes remember what we felt in the moment, not necessary its true objective nature. Artists in this exhibition address this blur between the truth and the dream. The show is presented online only, which serves to underscore the blurring of reality in dreamlike, invented states and reality, something that often happens in an exaggerated way online

     Every artist featured in the show utilizes their medium as a gentle method for conceptual framework. Dreams can be gentle and simple, just as the artists’ work may feel at first glance. All the creations may make a viewer feel humbled and light, but this is just to lure them in like a lullaby would to a deep sleep. Only here the viewers are made to jolt awake and become aware. The  animations Singing Suns, by  Shahzia Sikander and Pink Dot‚ by Takeshi Murata utilize fragmentations and abstraction to explore how creation of all kinds is made. Camille Norment’s installation Rapture,  produces a calm meditation while at the same time producing an undercurrent of tension to speak about hidden trauma in one’s self and history. Andrea Barwick’s Sleeping Nightmares directly plays upon one’s memory being mixed up between nightmares and bliss, unsure of the world around. At first glance these works will feel gentle, but all have strong messages. Demanding to be seen, heard, felt, breaking out of the “dreamstate” or this blissful state people want to believe is their true reality.

     There is a delicate relationship between one’s perceptions of what goes on around them in the world being created from their own memories and experiences. This does not always equal the true state of reality that has happened. There is a calm between someone’s body and mind that needs to be broken and unblurred to focus on the harsh realities. Investigation of a Dream-like state aims to do just that. By bringing ourselves out of our intimate dream states to the real world we keep pushed away. We tend to hold onto our dreams to act as a protection to ourselves.