From dreamwork to dream narratives. Dreams the dramatization of our subconscious, are in narratives forms; and yet the “truths” lie in the crevices, fractures and gaps between shots, between locations, between actions… beyond our manipulation. Many artists have turned dreamwork into an artistic method in accordance with the noticeable characteristic of the dreams we make — truncated, elliptical, strange combinations, yet as real as we could touch it and smell it. The Surrealists and many artists have created dreamwork with their own invented sound-and-sound grammar. Six video dream-works exhibited at The Ventriloquists show several young artists’ attempt to construct their own dream language. 夢境。夢作業。夢是特殊的敘述法。夢作為藝術創作的語言。夢指向潛意識的世界，非理性的實在，指向、展現，卻無法說明。夢作業是人存在的無形證據，實在處在夢象與夢象之間，在夾縫中，在虛處，在結合之間的斷裂處，是眾數的斷層。《腹語系》創作者也參與構築夢的敘事語法。
+ + + + The Ventriloquists…Thinking Narratively 《腹語系。微敘思考》 4-19 July 2020 @ Floating Projects. Opens daily 2-8pm except Mondays | Daily updates: Ventriloquists Series
WONG Lok-hang Parco: Hard-boiled Wonderland
A work on automatism and dreamwork
I am trapped in the subconsciousness surrounded by perfect and impenetrable walls. I need to know what the outside world looks like by following the map. Will the map lead me to consciousness?
I was reading Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (世界末日與冷酷異境) by Haruki Murakami. This novel has two parallel narrative strands that seem to be unconnected in the beginning, but their echo intensifies as the story grows. Another source of inspiration for my work is the poetry of Hai Zi (海子), a Chinese poet. …For the soundscape, I have remixed the music by Eugenio Caria to fit the rhythm of the images.
In this work Hard-boiled Wonderland, Parco Wong uses a found fictional map to structure his wondering attention as he “walks” through the city. The narrative logic, which is that of montage and editing, expresses a process of automatism, without concealing the maker’s attempt to “read” fragmented images as meaningful data. Is the walk the articulation of his subconcious? Rather, it is an immersive exercise to match images he has recorded with an automatic method with points on the map he intuitively feels connected… While the manifest story is a man getting closer and closer to a crack that is his destination, his voice over recites Hai Zi’s automatic poem 死亡之詩之三、採摘葵花。
AU YEUNG Cheuk-yin Sharis: Where am I?
A video dreamwork
A girl is in her dream. Waking up from unconsciousness, she has no idea whether she is in reality or still in the dream. Memories and realities keep alive crossing her mind and making her crazy.
CHOW Ka-kiu, Athena: …—…
A story told like a dream
“It is the sound of high heels… isn’t it?”
“Knock, knock, knock…” These sounds stop her from sleeping well every night. Day after day, year after year, until she moves out… She thought it should be something like high heels walking around the house or perhaps some other things. One day, she saw a movie, and shuddered all over from within……
LAM Mau-sum: Epilogue
A video
Based on the idea of condensation and displacement, I combined different thoughts into the video, using objects to drive the work’s meaning. Dreams are nice; they allow us to satisfy the desires of our heart. Meanwhile, a dream can destroy us if our desires are too intense. The reason I made this work is to realize the uncontrollable dream machine to encode disturbing thoughts and behavior.
MOK Ka-hei, Skyguy: Eye of the Beholder
A video dreamwork
Based on a memorable dream I had in the last few weeks prior to this work’s creation, this video project seeks to express the form automatism takes as it came to my mind in the dream. In an attempt to document-and-represent the visual aspects seen and remembered, I embarked on a journey of self-exploration into my deeper feelings.
Having completed a project in which I expressed a challenge to authority and social norms prior to this one, I believe that there is a wish inside me to escape from the current social situation, and yet I am unable to untangle myself from it, being insecure and constantly judged by superiors and peers at work, at school, and at home. As someone who strives to live by logical reasoning and rationality in daily life, I have rarely paid attention to my unconscious mind. This experiment has given me a new understanding of my inner thoughts through the medium of dreamwork and video-making.
TSANG Hiu-nam South: Passive Separation (on TV monitor)
To us, dreams are beautiful, but they are uncontrollable. It’s like sometimes I accidentally see my grandparents in my dreams. This touches me because this is the only way I could see them again. But it also hurts me because I cannot control when I get to see them, nor the duration of the dreams. The feeling of separation kills me every time because I “lose” my grandparents again and again.
