A strong, performative element comes across in gestures, juxtapositions and arrangements. In both the human body and the natural landscape, the known and familiar come up against idiosyncratic interpretations that are often strange and unsettling. Intensely subjective and often imbued with the qualities of Surrealism, the exhibition features work ranging from painting and printmaking, to photography. By manipulating the organic world these artists make us reconsider our current environments and the emotional impact they possess. The exhibition aims to inspire, inviting us to dream of a new future, transcending the emotions and limitations of the pandemic into a new reality.

Kristy M Chan and Max Gimson’s paintings investigate liminal spaces that are part of everyday life, visually interpreting visions and hallucinations. They make powerful and relevant commentary on domesticity and social constructs. Tom Faber and Giovanna Petrocchi’s constructed landscapes invoke dystopian and utopian realities by fragmenting and reformulating the world around us. Process, meanwhile, is central to Janet Waring Rago and Christopher Pearson’s work, enticing the viewer with ethereal surface qualities that examine the concept of time and gesture. Both artists seek to create a parallel between the field of action in three-dimensional space and its translation to the singular plane. A distinctive, performative element is present in the work of Candice Jewell and Loreal Prystaj: using strong juxtapositions and arrangements, the artists re-examine activism around identity constructions and the human gaze.

As the global crisis we are experiencing faces us with a life of isolation that urges us to re-think our current existence, dreams might seem a distant illusion. Yet, while social utopias of interconnectedness feel removed, art remains a powerful medium of solace. The long-criticized dream imagery of Surrealism, considered by many to be apolitical and excessively detached from the material world, now seems to be more relevant than ever. Surrealists most probably took refuge in the world of the subconscious to escape the desolation and confusion bequeathed by the First World War. Utopias and dystopias intermixed, leaving humanity doubting our role in the new post-war world, and simultaneously trying to grasp how to move forward.

Today we are confronted with an unusual enemy. A silent adversary, that has shaken the social and economic foundations we depend on so clearly, leading to a global seismic shockwave. In this time of crisis and isolation, the role of art becomes even more central and critical to our lives, delineating our dreams and offering immense hope. It does not seem too far reaching, then, to say that we have attained a “resolution of these two states — outwardly so contradictory — which are dream and reality, into a sort of absolute reality”, to quote André Breton.