We sleep. Images appear in our mind’s eye. Scenes and sensations are seen, heard, felt: dreams, a creation of sleep. The unconscious speaks in symbols – as does art. Dreams and art open up transcendent spaces of healing.
Lucid Dreams engages with this universal theme, crossing boundaries of time and geography to investigate dreams in art, material culture, and new media from a multicultural perspective. It presents 180 works: ancient headrests, illuminated Jewish, Islamic, and Christian manuscripts, Chinese dream stones and Japanese Zen prints together with works in a range of mediums by artists from the last three centuries, from Goya’s powerful Sleep of Reason through Surrealist visions to contemporary creations. All of these express humanity’s shared, never-ending desire to touch the dream and interpret it.
We invite you to shift consciousness and enter spaces of reverie. Wander through the architecture of dreams; explore the connection between dreams and words; celebrate a century of Surrealism; delve into the meaning of dreams, mythical dream stories, and the ideas of Freud and Jung. Draw inspiration and discover the link between brain research, technology, art, and dreams. Immerse yourself in the transformative power of art.