When the pandemic hit, I started having strange, vivid dreams. I was not alone, many other people experienced the same thing. For me, the themes were of empty desolate cities. There were floods of black water that washed into the streets. In some cases, buildings turned into ruins and even dissolved into smoke. I used the imagery and atmosphere from these dreams in the creation of a new body of work:
‘Black Water’ – digital composite
‘Black Water’ In this dream it’s quiet, no one’s around; not a breath of wind. Slow, heavy waves roll through the black tarry water that has replaced the ground. The black water stretches to the horizon. The sky is so close and heavy you could touch it. I notice that I’m in a small, varnished wooden boat. It has no oars. Black sticky water splashes up. It’s very hard to wipe it off.
‘Bad News’ - digital composite
‘Bad News’ The bad news in this case are the cheerfully coloured letters ‘a u u a a a g g…’ which is the RNA sequence of the Covid-19 virus. The genetic code of the disease. Again, the world is dissolving into ruin, but there is hope in the form of the little boat. Whereas everything else is under a dark cloud, this little boat is lit with rays of hope.
‘Bridges’ - digital composite
‘Bridges’ in this dream, I’m on a bridge that’s strangely connected to other bridges. I don’t know where to go, but I’m in a hurry. Everything is shaking and rattling. There’s a huge train somewhere close, but I can’t see it.
‘Stitching’ - digital composite
‘Stitching’ - I can’t make much sense of this dream, but here it is: odd but not threatening people visit our houses when we sleep. They take photos of banal things and leave them in drawers where we find them in the mornings. The photos are cut up in different shapes and then stitched together. Some of the stitching is tight, some of it very lose so that there are long threads between the pieces. In the dream, no one seems concerned about these nocturnal artists, they look forward to what they will find in the morning.