HYPNAGOGIA I-III (2018)

“Hypnagogia” (2018) is a series of abstract mixed media works on paper that explores an idea about the liminal space where opposite aspects of reality meet and join hands in a paradoxical encounter. As a result, old structures fall apart and new associations are made.

Hypnagogia I-III is a series of mixed media works that represents the liminal realm between wakefulness and sleep. It is, in other words, the threshold to an entirely different state of consciousness. Here, and just barely out of sight from our conscious attention, our waking perception of linear, objective reality breaks down. The dismantling of the waking perception serves to pave the way for the multilayered narratives of the inner self during sleep. This brief and elusive state usually appears nonsensical, though it has also been known to offer creative insights and emotionally meaningful hallucinations. The inner reality complements external reality, and the two are best seen as interdependent and complementary experiences that cannot exist on their own.

During the process of painting this work, I tried to loosen conscious control and avoid generic symbols that would direct the viewers analytical thinking into certain stereotypical concepts. The triptych aims to highlight the idea of elusive metaphysical principles as they form in the mind and gradually lead to a clarity of understanding. The formation of new insights demand that old conceptual constructs are broken down and destroyed, but the process of destruction and construction does not necessarily appear linear. In this work, there is an idea that past, present and future need to connect in the mind of the person who aspires to get a better hold of their sense of identity and who they are in relation to the rest of the universe. The present is a melting pot of past and future, and the formation of insights and connections asks for a meditative state of mind that is essentially hypnagogic in character.