Unit 1: Dream

Determine the topic

I dreamed a lot during that time, and I was always confused by dreams, so I decided to research it.

Inspiration

My work comes from my impressive dreams. I have written four dreams.

Dream one:

Reality: When I was young, I was always beaten by my parents. In my memory, I was beaten twice by my father. The first time was that when I accidentally fell over my brother, my dad was so angry so he hit me with long sticks, which impressed me the most. I was so terrified that I ran downstairs from the house wearing only briefs.

  Dreamland: In a dark environment, there is a spiral staircase in the house. I ran downstairs and downstairs, like floating in the air. There is a black image behind it that is a monster, to catch me.

Attachment: I always hear my mother shouting at an empty environment for no reason, with a serious tone, like a command, and the voice is very sharp.

Dream two：

Reality: I graduated from a primary school far away from home to study in a junior high school in my city.Being closer to home means that it is closer to mother's jurisdiction, I fell into a more deteriorating condition. I was very unhappy and even behaved badly at the school first because of restrictions from my parents.

  Dreamland: The principal of the primary school was a grandmother ,whose husband was dead. At that time, I was attending the summer camp. We went to the zoo. I walked over a swaying cable bridge. I was scared. After passing the cable bridge, I walked into a cold cave from a hot outdoor. The stone in the cave was not smooth. , bumpy and liquid on the wall. I suddenly saw a frozen vulture, hairless, and wrapped in ice.

Dream three：

Reality: My parents work very busily, so i often eat at a hotel outside, from childhood to juveniles. I don't like social etiquette in eating in hotels as i need to toast and even praise the others in public. I feel very awkward when toasting, and I have to say some auspicious words. so I was very reluctant to join them and even i will hide from my parents.I didn't like it when I was a child.

Dreamland: In the lobby of the hotel, the super deluxe super empty, there is a delicate crystal chandelier, it is yellow. There is a dark tree underneath the chandelier. It is super large. The tree is covered with frog eggs. They are separated and look at you like eyes, but this is edible. The eyes of the tree are as expensive as bird's nest, abalone or fishbone. It is sold to consumers for purchase. I stood very small in front of this tree, and eventually, I felt that the tree was getting bigger and bigger and I was getting smaller and smaller.

Dream four：

Reality: I suffer from having a fever at nearly 40 degrees in the winter every year and I have a very deep impression in the primary school, junior high school and high school respectively. But in high school, i didn’t want to bother my parents to bring me home to see a doctor, because of my thoughtfulness. Forbearance, rolling in bed for a few hours. In the end, I really can't stand it. It's cold for a while, hot, sweating,

and I felt like I would die the next die. My classmates asked my parents to pick me up and go to see a doctor. My father was on a business trip, so my mother who was wearing very thin pajamas hurried to school to pick me up. I remembered she changed many towels for me at that night. I was so impressed because my mom seldom accompanied with me overnight. When it was around 4:00 in the morning, the sky was getting brighter. I got up and couldn’t sleep and danced at the bedside.

I didn't know if it was subconscious or something else.I felt that I was not standing on the bed. My mother took me to the hospital. The hospital was a small clinic. I had visited that hospital since I was a child. The doctor might prescribe strong drugs to me which made me rely on that for quite a while.

Dreamland:

In the dream of that night, there was a huge white cloud just like in the heaven. I floated up like I was walking in the space. But my limbs were not big enough: one was big while the other was small. Then my body felt like floated with water as well as swollen in a pill bottle.My head was bloated, filled with cotton.

Research

1. The Interpretation of Dreams( Freud, 1899) explains that dreams are the satisfaction of desires, and the true dominance of human nature is unearthed.

2. The film "Andaru's Dog" is grotesque, which presents with a gripping rhythm disorderly, and it is full of metaphors. There are short films recording the chaotic dreams, which reveals anti-intellectual repression and panic.

3. I watched the movie "The BFG" , making me feel like yearning for a better world in my childhood.

4. I studied the surrealist painter Dali. Actually, I don't like his style because it is too dark. There is a contradiction worth considering while his expression of things is very clear.

5 Artist Georges Rousse's visual illusion is my favourite, which makes me feel cheerful.

6. Thomas. Sarasino's work shows a clear logic that I feel is useless, and his work is very tension.

7.

I saw an artist's interview with his dream art in VISION 2014. I cut the specific content of the magazine for reference, but unfortunately I can't find the artist's information.In the interview, she mainly explained her dream in four aspects. The first one is the relation of dreams with her subconsciousness. The dream which makes people to give up their desires is the second one. While the third one is the destruction of her dreams into reality,and the fourth is the link between dreams and the philosophy of the East- no ego. The artist's work mainly brings the dream experience to the audience through influences and installations of self-awareness. She hopes to distinguish I from self and super-ego and tries to put their social status and wealth down.

I usually like to record or collect some interesting words and pictures I see.

Determine the topic & theme

Dream comes from reality.

The things in dreams can always be reflected by the same or similar existence in reality.

Meanwhile, the reality is combined with people's desire, thoughts and personalities which are reflected from their dreams subconsciously.

From the perspective of psychology, dreams come consciously.

Dream 1 Frog egg

Dream 2 Being sick

Observational drawing & Imaginative painting

Dream 1

Dream 2

Try different art forms

At first, I wanted to behave in an animated way, but I was unlikely to finish it in 4 weeks,therefore I considered a performance art (I played the role of the protagonist myself, and I will make some props to dress up the stage background to assist my performance), but considering many factors or feeling that I can not express my theme and think, I will go to the library,researching through some books on the contemporary art. I am particularly interested in Installation Art, Scene art, and Conceptual Art. I feel that this kind of art form can communicate with people more directly. Why do I have to paint blindly? I want to try new forms, so I chose some elements of my picture to create it. For example, in dream 1, I decided to make a candy floss tree because candies are good memories of children's childhood

I will do some eye models, with cameras in them, and these eyes are staring at the audience who can eat candy floss and record their expressions.I will perform this performance in the lobby of a hotel.

In dream 2, I will make a doll based on me with her head and body stuffed with cotton and even some of them are blown out. And she floated in the air, with a lot of needles in her body.

Presentation

I showed my work to the Miss Jennie and my classmates on October 24th in the presentation. During the presentation, Jennie made a point that my sculpture was like a small scene in the work. And I agree with her points.

I want to divide four dreams into my four ages or divide them into four themes.

If it were divided into four periods, this is a process of my maturity. But it is obvious that my work is divided into different themes. Therefore, I plan to divide it into different themes.

The first theme is the hate originated from gender bias from the traditional Chinese culture which considers boys as the dominant role in a family. The second theme is the child's yearning for freedom for fun. The third one is the children's refusal to engage in adult social activities, which reflects adults' hypocrisy.The last theme is that people should hold a positive view towards a healthy lifestyle such as injections might impair immune system。

Assessment and Reflection

The feedback that i received from my peers is that I painted very well and the content of my work is very exciting. However, I found that I still fail to express my thoughts very well. My paintings didn't give the audience the feedback that I wanted, which is to heal the feeling of them. Also, I understand why Miss Jenny said that my ambition was great during the first tutorial. Right now, I find that I can't complete parts of my dream project. The second concern is that the concept of my final work is difficult to operate, because I need to find the site and till now I have not found one satisfactory.

To sum up, when I have ideas in the future works, I need to find relevant information for demonstration before hand, and try to see if it can work out or not.