Dreams are a weird one.
EVERY ENTITY YOU SEE IN YOUR DREAMS IS YOU
DREAMS ARE (FICTIONAL) MEMORIES – DREAMS ARE TEXTS
DREAMS ARE ARTEFACTS OF (CULTURAL) REPRESENTATION
A NIGHTMARE IS A DREAM IN THE FORM OF A TRAP
-Louise Milne
Having never really thought much about the nightmare and a possible connection to a work of art, this was new territory for me.
Milne likens the nightmare to a trap. There is evidence of what came before, the creator. And there is suggestion of a possible victim. The trap is this middle point that acknowledges both the aware and the unaware. In a dream every entity is intact you. And the hunter and prey interact.
Artworks too ensnare attention and provoke ‘self shattering’ experiences. Milne comments on the anxiety caused by placing paradoxical representations against each other. This is why a nightmare can be frightening, the familiar comfortable objects interwoven with fear and ‘monsters’. Art, and curation too, incorporate juxtapositional paradoxes into their viewing.
