Dream 01

This is a one-of-a-kind photogram work., with black metal frame with acid free mat.

DREAM

-by LIU YANG

I remember having fantastic dreams as a teenager. I wrote some of them down in a notebook, but stopped doing so because of heavy school works. The notebook was later lost when moving. However, my curiosity in dreams remains. A few years ago, I started thinking about how to record my various dreams, and to explore and to look at myself.

I find unique gelatin silver photogram a wonderful way to express my dreams, because my dreams are sometimes abstract and vague and mostly they are in black and white, except for occasional sudden bursts of color. Dreams sometimes appear to be daily remnant of consciousness, but mostly they are out of step with reality. Dream sometimes has universality, but most time it is special and dramatic.

I often wonder about the common elements appearing in my dreams. Why is the image about “home” always the house I lived in a child? How are anxious dreams related with reality? Moreover, why does a woman always have dreams full of violent killings, explosions and escapes?

Since 2017, I’ve been trying to use gelatin silver photo paper as a medium for painting, to record the images appear in my dreams; and I use light and photographic liquid to paint on the paper, to express the story and emotion in my dreams. Freud said, “Dream is the satisfaction of desire.” I hope to survey the subconscious mind of myself through the contents and emotion in my various dreams, analyze myself through the mind’s activities at night, dig deeply and study the faded memories and the truth from deep in my heart that has been covered by reality.


This photo size is 20*24 inches, with acid-free mat and black metal framing, framing size is 27*31.4inches.