DREAM

Curator. Consolidated Works, Seattle. October - December 2001

Artists: James Barsness (Athens, GA), Nan Curtis (Portland, OR), Henry Darger (previously of Chicago, IL), Peter Drake (New York), MK Guth (Portland, OR), Jacci den Hartog (Los Angeles), Malia Jensen (Portland, OR), Din Q. Le (Los Angeles), Mariko Mori (Japan/New York), Cynthia Pachikora (Portland, OR)

Each night, whether in sleep or stolen waking moments, we dream—conjuring images of longing, fantasy, and escape. Art emerges from that dreaming, rendering the intangible tangible and revealing how imagination shapes our reality. Dreamscapes presents artists who channel alternate worlds, inviting viewers to step into terrains where the subconscious speaks clearly. Malia Jensen’s Beaver Story, an oversized plywood beaver constructed from CAT scans, plays with scale and power, exploring sexuality, industry, and attempts to tame nature. James Barsness’ The Trash Heap constructs an anarchic dreamscape in ballpoint ink, teeming with cartoonish yet grotesque figures layered over pop detritus. Henry Darger’s The Realms of the Unreal—15,000 pages of fiction and sprawling double-sided watercolors—reveals a lifetime dedicated to recording an unruly dreamworld that structured his solitude.

Mariko Mori’s Kumano video leads viewers through ritualistic landscapes, from ancient forests to outer space, a lucid dream questioning spiritual longing and personal transformation. Peter Drake presents a satirical American dream in which naked suburbanites assert their bodies and lawns with absurd confidence. In M.K. Guth’s video and sculpture installation, Sara, go down in the hole and get some potatoes…, a woman silently peels potatoes in a ghostly kitchen, declaring presence in a space historically associated with domesticity. Dinh Q. Le’s photo-weavings blur Hollywood fantasy with Vietnam War trauma, collapsing fabricated memory and historical truth into a single unsettling image. These works treat dreams not as private escapes, but as tools to reveal personal and collective mythologies.

Other works offer physical, emotional, and metaphoric journeys. Jacci Den Hartog’s cascading polyurethane sculptures blend Chinese landscape painting with kitschy decor, quietly subverting Western expectations of the “exotic.” Cynthia Pachikara’s video installation follows a rainy, endless road trip through a pendulum’s swing, evoking the restless promise of new beginnings and the immigrant’s journey of escape and reinvention. Nan Curtis’ Archipelago Paradise Lost constructs a fictional tourist destination complete with brochures and discount coupons, parodying the fantasy-making of vacations. Together, these artists illuminate the dreaming impulse, revealing truths that exist beyond the surface of our waking lives.