Susan kae Grant

NIGHT JOURNEY

Night Journey represents a significant collaboration of artistic and scientific inquiry into the nature of dreams, memory and the unconscious. The work is composed of a series of intriguingly haunting large-scale images that re-create the fragmented and multi-sensorial experience of dreaming.

To produce the work, Susan Grant collaborated with sleep researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. To access unconscious visual memory, Grant used herself as subject and was digitally monitored and awakened from REM sleep and then interrogated by trained technicians. Grant used the tapes of these narrative interviews as inspiration to create the imagery for the series.

The shadow gestures depicted in the images suggest a fragmented narrative as they shift in and out of focus, signifying the impermanent quality of the dream state. To create the gestures and narratives inspired by the dream recordings, Grant photographs shadows of models and props in her studio.

The Night Journey series examines the perceptual and psychological aspects of the dream state and provides a pictorial access to the unconscious. It raises universal questions among viewers and re-creates an unexplainable experience all humans share.

Susan kae Grant's images are available in sizes 40 x 52 in editions of 9, or 30 x 52 and 24 x 36 in editions of 20.

Images © Susan kae Grant