Midnight: Dreams and the Subconscious
An Exhibition About Fractured Narratives And Their Implied Meaning
Opening Reception October 28th, 7-10pm
Facebook Event
Like it or not, one third of your life is spent sleeping. We may not always realize it, but this moment of respite not only offers our bodies a chance to recover, it also gives our subconscious a chance to speak. The question is - are we willing to listen? Light Grey Art Lab invites artists to enter into a conversation about their dreams and subconscious for their newest exhibition, Midnight, a show about the fractured narratives we experience through the veil of sleep.
Midnight, which opens Friday, October 28th, asks the question, what if our dreams are trying to tell us something important, and we’re just unable to understand the message? For this exhibition, over eighty brave artists from around the world will put their subconscious on display for a bit of crowdsourced psychoanalysis. Midnight asks each artist to recall an unusually vivid dream they’ve had and interpret the ideas and concepts into visual art, which will be displayed alongside a brief synopsis. Visitors of the physical and online gallery will be able to offer their insights, interpretations, and advice directly to the artist via anonymous psychoanalysis forms provided by Light Grey Art Lab. The results from these forms will be shared on the Midnight exhibition page of Light Grey Art Lab’s website.
The content presented in Midnight runs the gamut from the absurd and surreal, to disturbing and ominous, to heartfelt and nostalgic. Some of the artists found the task of interpreting these near-memories that didn’t quite exist a difficult challenge. “Characters are shifting and changing identities in my dreams... Someone may start out looking like a character from a book, though I'll know that behind the mask they're really my sister, and as the dream progresses they'll transform into someone else entirely without me questioning it at all.” recalls participating artist Camille Chew. “My own role in dreams also shifts at times… Multiple storylines and characters constantly shift and blur together making it difficult to piece together what happened after I wake up.”
The opening reception for Midnight is Friday, October 28th from 7-10PM and will remain on display through November 19th. The opening reception is free and open to the public, and features artwork, music, and refreshments, as well as several interactive activities. Visitors are encouraged to interpret the artwork and fill out the provided psychoanalysis forms which will be returned to the artists and posted online.
Additionally, visitors interested in learning more about intuition, divination, and the subconscious can join Light Grey Art Lab for a weekend of workshops in the spirit of the Midnight exhibition. Beginning at noon on Saturday, October 29th, the series kicks off with Pendulums: Reading with Intuition, in which participants will not only learn about the art of divination using pendulums, they’ll also make their own crystal pendulum and reading mat using components provided by the gallery. At 3 PM, the series continues with Palmistry: Love, Life, and Fate, where visitors will learn to decipher shapes, lines, and mounts of the palm, and this workshop includes an illustrated, gold-foil palmistry chart for each participant. Continuing at noon on Sunday October 30th, visitors can craft essential oils, infused fragrances, and body oils out of mini-crystals and herbs during Potions: Fragrances and Oils. Finally Jewelry: Pendants and Talismans begins at 3 PM, and participants will create earrings and necklaces out of brass, bronze, and gold findings, crystals, and gemstones all while learning about the unique spiritual properties of the materials, which will be provided by the gallery. Interested parties can learn more and register for the workshops on the Light Grey Art Lab Lab website: http://shop.lightgreyartlab.com/collections/workshops
Hope to see you there!