Fantasy Castle Dream Parade invites the audience to play and make together in the imagistic realm of the subconscious. Disparate elements connect via dendritic maps, constructing a brainscape lit by points of collision and wonder. In this growing psychological ecology reverie and creative reflection are encouraged through opportunities to participate in making and sensory play.
In a process driven act of collective making, emerging artist Elissa Ritson invites a reconnection between inner and outer worlds, reigniting the familiar in our daily lives with the radiant complexity of our interior selves. A dream-ecology will be assembled from made and found objects and images in which the familiar rubs against the strange and playfulness is paramount.
“I cannot describe the finished work for you because even I don’t yet know what it will look like. It is a living, social being that will develop based on what it comes in contact with. What will be provided is a structure: materials, activities, and permission to playfully engage with the land of dreams through making. The result will be a sort of landscape woven from the magic that occurs between people when they pay attention to the now, existing within themselves, and with each other; luminously present.”
– Elissa Ritson
There will be echoes of the node and pathway structure found within nature, with particular reference to the brain. Self-contained vignettes will connect to each other through gesture, materials, light and repeated motifs, in much the same way that the repetition of both natural cycles and human routine impress their patterns upon our brains. These will be mapped around a central subconscious construction, a kind of Dream House, doubling as an introverted retreat for quieter, more reflective making tasks. The public will add to the work in workshops, and drop-in making sessions throughout the course of the exhibition. The act of making becomes a medium for presence – absorption in the moment, and in the senses – allowing the viewer to be aware of and at one with their own body as an extended thinking and experience gathering tool.
As well as this the artist will undertake more introspective work alone, processing and cementing the connections between these social occasions and my own creative practice. This is to indicate the human as a socially situated being, and the ever-changing nature of life, mimicking the fluidity in an attempt to understand and connect with it, instead of representing it as a static abstract concept. As an exchange it is grounded in sensory engagement, in noticing and responding, and being emotionally present, encouraging the viewer to cross the psychological barrier being watching and doing by being enticingly fun. As such, modes of disarmament, such as playing dress-ups, responding to music, or playing games will be experimented with throughout. The work will be different each time it is viewed as the environment responds to the participants.
EXHIBITION DATES:
Friday 6 – Tuesday 31 May 2016
9:00am – 5:00pm weekday + Saturdays (as per times for Public Engagement Activities below)
OFFICIAL CLOSING EVENT:
Saturday 28 May 2016 @ 4:00pm – 6:00pm
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES:
Drop In Sessions:
This work will develop in the space, and the public will opportunities to drop in to work and play with the artist. All materials provided. Children encouraged.
Gold coin donations welcome.
Private Dream-Work Sessions:
Choose from a menu of brain massage, dreamscape delirium, and fantasy construction.
These sessions are limited, and by appointment only.
To book email: elissaritson@gmail.com
TIMES:
Saturday 7 May 2016 : 10:00am – 4:00pm
Saturday 14 May 2016: 10:00am – 4:00pm
Saturday 21 May 2016: 10:00am –4:00pm
Saturday 28 May 2016: 2:00pm – 4:00pm (followed by Closing Event)
Image Credit: Elissa Ritson