a dream project

I have been collecting brief descriptions of recent actual dreams, all of which are included here. I am not interested in analyzing them, but simply curious about the experiences we have while our minds and bodies are at rest.


In the process of collecting these dream stories, I was inspired to make A Thousand Threads, a limited edition, screen-printed book. It contains short, meditative poems I wrote by interweaving the dream fragments of others with my own dream imagery.


This project was part of The Spaces in Between, a solo exhibition curated by Susanna Meiers, February 14 – March 11, 2011, at the El Camino College Art Gallery in Torrance, CA.


To see all of the book pages or contribute a dream story, please go to www.betsylohrerhall.com. Thanks!




Thursday, February 17, 2011

Anonymous - Biting a Tongue (not mine) and Other Cannabalistic Tendencies


Here are two dream snippets.  A wider context didn’t stay with me -- only the disturbing bits! Both dreams were in the last two weeks. Can’t be more specific. I was here, at home, in late November, early December 2010. 

Dream 1.
In this dream I found myself biting off the tip of someone’s tongue and having trouble extricating it from my teeth! The texture was like sticky rubber and the person was looking pretty alarmed as I struggled to get the bloody bits out of my mouth. This person changed sex during the incident, but I can’t now remember whether s/he started off as a man and ended up as a woman, or vice versa. It was a complete stranger – no one I knew. I woke up feeling a bit disturbed.

Dream 2.
In a similar cannibalistic vein, this dream was longer. I found myself in a restaurant setting and was presented with a female fetus on a plate, prepared in some kind of glaze but not really cooked, as far as I could tell. Within the culture of the dream, I was expected to eat this dish and was aware that I would cause offence not to, but I found the whole idea revolting and distasteful.  Feeling pressured to do what was expected of me, I picked it up and reluctantly licked at the glaze.  I don’t recall there being any taste. I then attempted to crack it open with the intention of biting into it, like a lobster, only length- wise. This filled me with revulsion, especially as the fetus began to show signs of life!! I woke up alarmed, as you might expect.

Anonymous

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