WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
This series was born from that. From those vivid, recurring dreams that, while they last, make the real world seem unreal. I wanted to explore both sides of the coin: the dream that makes us happy and the nightmare that traps us.
It's probably happened to you: suddenly you're eight years old and the world is once again a vast and safe place. You're sitting on a swing that hangs from nowhere, gently swaying above a sea of clouds that look like cotton candy. There's no vertigo, just that absolute peace of a time when you didn't have to explain anything to anyone. Then you wake up and adult logic tries to convince you it was just a trick of your mind, but the feeling of freedom stays with you all day.
Conversely, it's also curious, and somewhat terrifying, that we are the only species capable of experiencing real physical suffering simply by imagining a problem. In a dream, fear isn't an abstract idea; it's a person attacking you, an entity that feels…
Through this essay on the subconscious, I attempt to explore those inner worlds into which we immerse ourselves every night.
I think that, in the end, we spend the day pretending we have a map and know exactly where we're going. But then night falls and reminds us that neither you nor I know anything at all. Our consciousness is something that dissolves like sugar in coffee as soon as we fall asleep.
These images aren't meant to explain anything; I hope they serve the opposite purpose: to spark more questions. And I hope you and I continue to have a blast while we think together through this and a thousand other series.