"Proposal
Title: Interpretation of Dreams
Name: Emma Whyte
Date: 25/01/13
Conceptual Framework / Subject Matter:
Dreams are
sequences of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that occur spontaneously in
the mind during certain stages of sleep. According to Sigmund Freud, “Dreams
are attempts by the unconscious to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether
something recent or something from the past. However, because the information
in the unconscious is in an unruly and often disturbing from, a ‘censor’ in the
preconscious will not allow it to pass unaltered into the conscious.” The
scientific study of dreams is oneirology. The average person has around 5
dreams per night. Dreams can have varying categories, such as frightening,
exciting, magical, adventurous or sexual. Freud also wrote, ‘All the materials that compose the content of
the dream is somehow derived from experience, that it is reproduced or
remembered in the dream – this at least may be accepted as an incontestable
fact.’ Dream interpretation is a method of conveying meaning to dreams. I will hopefully
be interpreting dreams that are very common to most people. I want to find out
why people have these dreams and what the meanings are behind them. The topic
of Interpretation of Dreams is very important to me because everybody has different
types of dreams, or at least see them differently. Some are more common than
others and sometimes are not understood. Dreams can tell a lot about a person,
how they feel, their self – esteem, if they are worried or have issues they are
trying to hide from or trying to ignore. Researchers have offered many
different theories for dreams yet people keep excavating their night time
trances for signs to their internal lives, for creative insight, and even for
intuitions. Early civilisations believed that dream worlds were real, physical
realms they could enter only from their dream state. I want to try and convey
some dreams in my prints but as surrealism more that realistically how they are
seen. My plan is to take the dreams I have recorded, try and decipher there
meaning and turn them into a surreal print. I will be using many different
print processes to try and achieve this goal.
Artists to Research:
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali, also known as ‘Salvador
Dali’, was a Spanish surrealist painter. Dali experimented with Dada which was
a huge influence throughout his life. Dali employed symbolism in most of his
work. The elephant is a subject that is frequently seen throughout his work. It
first appeared in his 1944 work ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a
Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening’. The elephants are portrayed with ‘long,
multijointed, almost invisible legs of desire.’
“The elephant is a distortion in space, its spindly legs contrasting the
idea of weightlessness with structure.” one analysis explains. The egg is another
common Dali image. He attaches the egg to the prenatal and intrauterine, therefore
using it to symbolise hope and love. It appears in ‘The Great Masturbator’ and
in ‘The Metamorphosis of Narcissus’. Numerous other animals are used in his
paintings: ants point to death, decay and sexual desire; the snail is linked to
the human head, and locusts are a symbol of waste and fear. I think it is
important for me to look
at his paintings in conjunction to my project because his ideas and how he
portrays his ideas through painting is how I want to try and portray my ideas
through prints, in a surreal, abstract way.
·
Surrealist
·
Experimentation
·
Eccentric
·
Symbolism
Vladimir
Kush is a Russian born surrealist painter and sculpture. Many of his original
oil paintings are sold as giclee prints which initially contributed to his
popularity. In July 2011 his works were shown at the Artistes De Monde
international exhibition in Cannes where he won First Prize in Painting.
Although his style is frequently described as surreal, he described it as
‘metaphorical realism’ and cites the early influence on his style of Salvador
Dali’s paintings as well as landscapes by the German Romantic painter Casper
David Friedrich. In one of his paintings ‘African Sonata’, merges animal forms
with inanimate objects. “The trumpeting of the elephants is a sound of
rejoicing that erupts with the appearance of their master. The elephants call
other animals and birds to celebrate. It is fitting that elephants should lead
this symphony. When the world was young, elephants had strength and power over
all.” In another one of his paintings, ‘Always Together’, two blades of a pair
of scissors are the symbol of unification of a man and woman, gathering in
love, then parting in disagreement. “This pendulum of feelings can develop into
a furious dance of a steel pair leaving behind them stack of love letters.” I
feel it is important for me to look at Kush’s work because, like Dali’s work,
his paintings are surreal and, in his words, ‘metaphorical realism’. I feel
this relates to my work extensively due to his style and subject matter.
·
Surreal
·
‘Metaphorical
Realist’
·
Successful
·
Mesmerizing
Print processes and Image Making Strategies:
I plan to
use a number of different types of print processes including silkscreen,
woodblock and possibly etching. I will also be using digital medias including
multimedia and photography. I want to try different processes that are new to
me such as photolithography and more. I want to try many different print
processes to try and achieve my goals listed above."
