Dreams vs Reality

My exhibition communicates a reoccurring theme of ‘Dreams vs Reality’ through displaying different interpretations of the said theme via several visualizations. Each artwork represents different ideas and perceptions of general dreams along with my own personal dreams and the reality that takes it away. The Dreams that are depicted in each piece could be ambition, fantasies, or what people what to become. Dreams in the form of human desire for what they don’t own. The reality in different forms visualizing the opposite of said dreams, be it obvious or not obvious in each piece.

In general, the main concept I plan to express is based on my own experience and other people’s experience that I was able to observe regarding their dreams shattered by reality, either caused by themselves or external factors. I aim to present these interpretations of dreams vs reality to express my emotions on the theme and show my audience that the theme is reoccurring in real life. The exhibition has three concepts, showing the reality in the dreams, so the reality part of the artwork is surrounded and hidden by the dream part of the artwork, the second is vice versa, showing the dream surrounded by reality and the final concept is that both dreams and reality have the same space in the artwork. I start with the first concept with the piece Peace of Mind that starts on the right and continues to the left. This highlights the stages of life, how people dream in the latter stages, but it doesn’t seem like what they perceive and for some people, it gets worse. The next piece, Reflection, shows that what we want to become will not always come true or rather there is always another hidden trait opposite of our dreamt trait. The first concept continues with the piece Divided which shows that when humans have a goal, they can get indulged in the process that they forget everything except for the thing they desire. The last piece with the first concept, Rotten highlights the outside perspective of people we dream of becoming will always appear beautiful but not on the inside. The exhibition then continues with the second concept placed in the middle with the artwork, Imperfection, that emphasizes perfection as a dream but it will never become a reality. This linked with my depiction that a person that is perfect is controlled by something or someone blindly to be one. Then the concept continues with the piece, Dreams vs Reality. This artwork is basically the epitome of my theme, the accumulation of common dreams and my own with the reality that destroys the dreams. The final concept starts with the artwork What I Desire, a more personal artwork that highlights something that I desire that in my perception, will not happen. The exhibition will end on the final piece I Want to See, which represents another desire of my own, my dream to see the sky full of stars and clusters. My dream is to see space from the earth without using a telescope but is trampled by pollution and civilization.

The mediums I used are acrylic, digital art, and photography. Since my artwork is about dreams vs reality, acrylic is used for many of the artworks as it can shape both realistic and unrealistic objects. Acrylic can emphasize unrealistic objects more, making unrealistic subjects seem more unrealistic than it already is. Acrylic can also be manipulated easier, bringing out small details more. Photography is used for Rotten so it can fully bring out realistic objects and Digital Arts are mainly used to make a much neater composition in the piece. Most of my artworks include the color blue or shades of blue to evoke aspiration to the audience, to emphasize the dreams in my artwork. The purpose of arranging my artwork the way that I did is so that the three concepts are clearly visible to the audience. This theme sparked when I was looking at van Gogh’s artworks, mainly the Starry Night. The composition of the objects that look dreamlike on the top half and realistic on the bottom half inspired me and the concept of dreams vs reality started there.