The exhibit “Dream States” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art serves as a breathtaking platform into a world of the unknown. Dreams are something that we experience almost every night, and the subjects of our dreams are so varied and complex that many would think it difficult to express as a visual. The artists whose work is presented in this exhibit, however, had no trouble doing just that. The pieces vary from very real photographs to artistic abstractions that only the creator would truly understand. When you walk into the exhibit there is a photo showcased of a woman simply sleeping in her bed. Despite its simplicity, the photo is extremely striking. The contrast in colors throughout the whole photo causes you to stop and just admire how peaceful the woman looks. When looking at this photograph one would infer that she is in a deep sleep, experiencing a dream. It leads the viewer to wonder what in fact this woman is dreaming about, and whether or not we would be able to relate to it.
As you move on through the exhibit you come across other types of pieces: depictions of dreams themselves. The first photo presented was of a woman who was having a dream, giving a visual picture to an actual dream. One particular piece that I found breathtaking was a photo from Adam Fuss’s series, “My Ghost.” The photo depicts a cloud of smoke arising from the ground, and it just has such a dreamy and calming feel to it. He was able to create this magnificent effect from blowing thick clouds of smoke over a sheet of photographic paper and quickly flashing a light onto it. The words that come to mind when viewing this painting are “evanescence,” “transient,” and “hazy.” When viewing the piece, you almost are able to feel encompassed in that smoke and wonder what in fact the smoke means.
Another piece in the exhibit is “The Pull” by Jack Goldstein. This piece is probably the simplest piece in the exhibit, but its simplicity exemplifies how our dreams can sometimes be extremely simple yet equally as meaningful. The medium he used is chromogenic print. The background consists of a faded teal-like color, getting whiter towards the edges of the piece. There is what looks like a tiny speck in the upper middle of the piece, and only if you look closely you can see that it is a man falling. The fact that this man is positioned the way he is arises many possible meanings, some of which may be that he is falling from somewhere, or that he is jumping from somewhere into the abyss of the unknown. This piece could represent a dream that Goldstein once had. Since the title is “The Pull,” perhaps Goldstein is the man and he is feeling a pull towards something in the unknown and he wants to explore what it is. There are numerous meanings that this piece could have and this fact is amazing because the piece is so simple. Sometimes the simpler the piece, the vaster the possible meanings. Many people’s dreams consist of complexities that even the dreamer can’t define and this piece exemplifies that.
Overall the pieces in the exhibit vary from extremely realistic to very abstract, and it keeps the viewer guessing each time. Dreams are such complex phenomena so to exhibit aspects of them on paper is extremely amazing. As soon as you walk in to the exhibit you enter a world of the unknown, and you are there to either bask in that unknown or to try to make some kind of meaning out of something so intricate and potentially impenetrable.
By: Annalissa Thomas
