The Sweetest Dream

The “Sweetest Dream” exhibition is my debut solo show, which I also curated. The display features ten photographs, an installation based on the work “Dream”, and a limited-edition booklet outlining the exhibition’s core concept.  

Concept

The series starts with a feeling of constant hustle that haunts us in the rhythm of the city. Our tender soul and emotions, represented by this fallen flower, get overlooked in favor of keeping up with the chores. And the only escape is a withdrawal into oneself…

Melancholy and nostalgia with a sprinkle of hope keep us moving. That escape is an attempt to remind oneself of their dreams and memories of joy. The model in the picture is not looking to the ocean, which represents the future, but to the shore, where past experiences and memories turn out to be valuable sources of energy and wisdom.

The train of thoughts never goes smoothly. It wiggles from side to side, creating a noise in one’s head. It’s almost impossible to follow through or to rationalize, yet it’s fragile if interrupted. This photo is just like this internal monologue, the path that leads to that internal escape to a dream: every viewer sees different things. Some see a beach, some — a road, and others — a field from the bird’s view. In reality, it’s an ice crust that just appeared on the surface of a pond. It represents this state of being on the border of something: a border between freezing and melting, or a border between a dream and a reality. Once you cross it, it becomes steady. But this moment in between is the most fragile.

Once you enter that space of dream, you feel like a child again. The world around turns out to be humongous, and everything seems to be possible again. It’s like being on the shore of the sea, which invites you to dive in with gentle waves, where miracles may happen.

This photo is a culmination of a joy. The plot revolves around the children in the foreground, who are playing “boats” with ordinary rubber slippers. This encourages us to think about the fact that there is no need to look specifically for reasons for joy: it is in our power to create them from what is available to us here and now. The figure in the center, a child running towards the ocean, does not touch the ground and seems to glide through the water, which gives this photo the feeling that the action is taking place in a dream. In this photo, every viewer clings to something of their own, but somehow this “something” gives a feeling of serenity.

Stillness may be brought from outside. The first photo was taken on the top of the mountain where the sudden fog blocked the monumental view and focused attention of the prior unnoticed tiny flowers. It set us in a feeling of surrender to the force of nature and helped to find peace in these seemingly unwanted circumstances.

But peace has many faces, and it can be found both on a mountain peak covered with fog and in the rhythmic pulse of a busy highway. This juxtaposition calls for the realization that true peace of mind is born within us and becomes the very safe place to which one can return whenever, regardless of external circumstances.

The exhibition closes with the “Metaphors” series, a triptych that becomes a final symbol of peace and a tangible connection to the timeless truths harbored by nature.  

“Where the sky meets the ocean”

The sky and the ocean are connected by the element of water. Flowing down with a divine gift from heaven, it saturates the dry black earth with its power. It’s a metaphor for creativity. Ideas that come to us from an unknown source are embodied in physical reality and inspire others to continue this cycle: like water descending to earth, it rises again to return with new gifts and thoughts.

“Kiss of the rocks”

Love, immortalized in unshakable rocks, as a symbol of eternal indestructible feelings, preserved through time, storms and heat. Love is like a divine gift that blesses everything on Earth.
Even the black rocks by the ocean.

“On the edge of eternity”

In life, people have to face the fact that they need to move away from the familiar waters into the absolute unknown, seemingly endless chapter of their story. Despite the fact that we are all approaching this threshold in one way or another, each individual person walks this path alone, because everyone has their own story, their own past and their own infinity ahead. A lonely tree symbolizes both loneliness and an anchor that one want to hold on to before stepping into the blue of the endless expanse of heaven, full of limitless possibilities.

And if this is the threshold between a dream and a reality, then you need to find the courage to wake up.