ZZZZZ: SLEEP, SOMNAMBULISM, MADNESS
–

Opening: Friday 5 October, 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates: 5 October - 3 November
Gertrude Contemporary | 21-31 High St, Preston South

Curated by Mark Feary

Zzzzz: Sleep, Somnambulism, Madness assembled and commissioned works by a selection of Australian and international artists to explore the representation of the sleeping figure within contemporary art, and how artists attempt to explore ideas of the subconscious, delirium and altered states. Other works within the exhibition explored the politics of sleep in our rapidly evolving times to consider the impacts of work and economic pressures upon relaxation. At times serene and tender, and at others deeply disturbing, the exhibition considered what transpires during our sleeping life as a means to reflect upon the relationship between our physical being and mental processes, consciousness and subconscious.

Depictions of sleeping figures have featured heavily in the history of Western painting and sculpture, often rendered to suggest beauty, vulnerability, sexuality or fatigue. This project dismissed passive representations to cast a lens on how artists attempt to make sense of the process of dreaming, its mysteries and potentialities as a critically vital, and little-understood function helping us to make sense of the world and in the formation and suppression of memory.

Participating artists: Chicks on Speed (Australia/Spain, USA, Germany), Lee Hadwin (UK), Mabel Juli (Australia), Barbora Kleinhamplová & Tereza Stejskalová (Czech Republic), Kate Mitchell (Australia), Erica Spitzer Rasmussen (USA), The Telepathy Project (Australia), and Javier Tellez (Venezuela/USA).

Zzzzz: Sleep, Somnambulism, Madness was presented in partnership with the Melbourne International Arts Festival and Murray Art Museum Albury.

To download the Education Resource for Zzzzz: Sleep, Somnambulism, Madness please, Click Here.