HYSTERIA_01_Insomnia



We try to keep a balanced life, everything in moderation, afraid of losing control over our healthily organized schedule. And we sweep all the ill, hurtful emotions under the carpet, neglectfully hoping that the wounds would magically heal themselves. The reasons for despair and anger have long been forgotten and the emotional distress turned into ungovernable anxiety and fear. The unresolved melancholy and obsessive thoughts unexpectedly manifest in our dreams in twisted forms.

Inspired by personal experience, <HYSTERIA> is an on-going project of the artist’s effort to cope with unhealthy human emotions through image-making.

<HYSTERIA_01_Insomnia> is the very first image of the on-going series.

“At a night, I’m utterly swallowed by ungovernable emotions and indelible memories. After a long sleepless tossing and turning around in bed I finally manage to fall asleep, but a strange dream disrupts my serenity. The irrational dream wakes me up at the dead of night and clutters my mind. At times, the afterimage of a nightmarish dream drives me into great fear.”

Over the years, the artist accumulated narratives of her bizarre dreams and tried to analyze the meaning behind their strangeness. She concluded that her dreams reflect the aggregated anxiety that stem from her deepest desire and longings that have not been realized in reality. <HYSTERIA_01_Insomnia> depicts the birth of an incubus eager to gnaw on the artist’s undisturbed sleep.

© 2023 Dani Choi. All rights reserved.