The Dream – Dark Mofo
6th June 2025
Before Modern psychoanalysis interpreted the dream artists depicted the world beyond sleep. Goya in his The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters used a metaphor for slumber to demonstrate the tenuous nature of civilisation.
With the growth of psychiatry Carl Jung discussed the dream as a series of psychological archetypes that revealed the multilayered self. In response Modern artists made works that put his thoughts into a concrete form. The Surrealists, Magritte, Tanning and Dali in particular, explored semantics and sexuality, playing with the imagery of the sleeping mind.
This Dark Mofo exhibition encompasses similar themes but is broader than dream interpretation. Added are ideal states of being, aspiration and beauty.
Who knows whether artists dream as others do? Perhaps this show will provide an answer.
