ACHG300 Assignment 1: Part 4

Dream catchers and the Unconscious mind

Dream catchers have existed for many generations, each generation had their own

version, ideologies and interpretation of these mystical chasms. A dream catcher has

been typically known to be a protective barrier against nightmare, only allowing

pleasant dreams.

From the legends of the Ojibwa tribe I have learned more about these mystical

hoops of twigs and beats. Not only where these charms made for the protection of

dreamers but also to guide the dreamer from harm in the dream world. The elders

from the Ojibwa tribe believed that these mystical charms allowed them to possess

super natural abilities beyond their physical form, they believed that dream catchers

also granted them psychic powers.

Many cultures have inscribed their own beliefs and personal meanings to dream

catchers. The elders of the Ojibwa tribe used a hoop instead of any other shape to

make dream catchers because they believed that It would represent the circle of life,

as they believed that sleep is the between life and death therefore the sleeper needs

to be protected and guided in the dream world.

The feathers on the dream catcher are believed to be confortable-resting places for

pleasant dreams and the woven web in the middle of the hoop is meant to confuse

bad dreams, reason why many dream catchers are design in different and complex

shapes and lines. Many other facts have arisen ever since the invention of dreams

catchers about 1000 years ago by the Asabikeshiinh tribe; the tribes name directly

translates to spider.

Many ideologies arose with the invention of the dream catcher like the idea of

exploring the unconscious mind to source ideas, mythical knowledge and even

creativity, the use of lucky charms to foretell and take a glimpse of the future. The

Ojibwa used these charms to see names of unborn kids in their sleep the same way

that Gypsies would use crystal balls and cards to foretell the future. The idea of the

spiritual self, inter dimensional travel and the existence of other worlds became

reoccurring facts.

Themes

• The unconscious mind.

• Psychic powers.

• Lucky Charms.

• Spiritual healing/spiritual beings.

• Inter dimensional travel.

• Parallel universes.

Product research (artists)

- Rene Magritte

- Salvador Dali

- Andre Breton

Andre Breton

Known for kick starting the Surrealism movement, Benton grew up reading works

from classical French authors such as Charles Baudelaire. He worked in various

creative media, focusing on collage and printmaking as well as writing and publishing

several books. Breton found ways in which text and image could be brought together

to create new, poetic word-image combinations.

Andre began studying contemporary and Avant guard art and quickly disconnected

from the “art for art’s sake” belief and began to create art that would appeal to the

masses, He developed a passion for psychiatric art that tapped into the

subconscious. He pioneered the concept of fusing art and culture, which became a

basic tenet in Pop Art.

"Surrealism is based on the belief .. in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected

play of thought. – Andre Breton"

Salvador Dali

Among the most versatile artist in the 20th century, Mr. Dali is a surrealist painter

born on May 11, 1904. Growing up Salvador was very curious and ambitious as said

on one of his famous quotes that read "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook; at the

age of seven Napoleon. Since then, my ambition has only grown - Salvador Dali".

Mr. Dali explored many aspects of his creativity; he has contributed work to fields

such as sculpting, print, advertising and filmmaking.

Having touched the classical renaissance art for inspiration, which resulted in his

hyperrealist art style with religious and erotic symbolism it wasn’t until he began to

try and relive his childhood memories by portraying them on a canvas that he would

be labeled a surrealist. Dali explores very vivid and thought-provoking themes in his

work from death and decay to psychoanalytical theories.

Dali’s perception of reality and what is “REAL” can be seeing in his work, using his

unconscious mind as visual reference, he renders his dreams and hallucinations as

would the Ojibwa tribe uses dreams and dream catchers to find answers to real life

problems.

(https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali)

(https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali)

(https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali)

Career and Character profile

Rene Magritte

Born in 1898, Rene was a surrealist painter known for his thought provoking images

and the use of everyday imagery and objects such as pipes and rocks. His

idiosyncratic approach to Surrealism gained him a good deal of fame; working as a

commercial artist in order to support himself he produced great bodies of work

ranging from advertising to book designs, it was during these years working as a

commercial artist that he shaped his fine art skills.

Magritte's development as an artist was influenced by two significant events in his

childhood; the first was an encounter with an artist painting in a cemetery, which he

happened across while playing with a companion, he explained that seeing that

painter was like a magic show.

Rene lost his mother to suicide in 1912, after this tragedy he found consolation in

films, literature and painting, which also influenced his artistry. He then left home in

1916 to Brussels where he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. Rene

lived a simple low-key life as a middle class citizen; a life symbolized by his bowler-

hatted men/character that he uses is most of his artworks, his use of text and

imagery inspired many conceptual artists for generations.

In 1921 Magritte began his one-year of compulsory military service before returning

home and marrying Georgette Berger, whom he had known since he was a boy and

with whom he would stay for the rest of his life. After a brief stint in a wallpaper

factory, he found work as a freelance poster and advertisement designer while he

continued to paint. Around this time Magritte saw the painting The Song of Love by

Italian surrealist Giorgio de Chirico and was so struck by its imagery that it sent his

own work off in the new direction for which he would become known.

From 1927 to 1930 Rene lived in Paris where he mate a life time companion and

father of the surrealist movement Andre Breton and other surrealist artists like

Salvador Dali and Max Enerst, with these influences Rene began to incorporate

more organic forms in his work, emphasizing surrealist subject matter such as

madness and hysteria.

Magritte's work had a major impact on a number of movements that followed his

death, including Pop, Conceptualism, and the painting of the 1980s. In particular, his

work was hailed as a harbinger of upcoming trends in art for its emphasis on concept

over execution, its close association with commercial art, and its focus on everyday

objects that were often repeated in pictorial space. It is easy to see why artists such

as Andy Warhol, Martin Kippenberger, and Robert Gober cite Magritte as a profound

influence.

Famous work

(https://www.renemagritte.org/the-castle-of-the-pyrenees.jsp)

(https://www.renemagritte.org/the-castle-of-the-pyrenees.jsp)

(https://www.renemagritte.org/the-castle-of-the-pyrenees.jsp)

(https://www.renemagritte.org/the-castle-of-the-pyrenees.jsp)

(https://www.renemagritte.org/the-castle-of-the-pyrenees.jsp)

Sound track

- Dream Koala – Dimensional Sleeper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI78uZ-Xz88

- Dream Koala – Oddyssey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02eupttyYDU

This song is by a 19-year-old electronic record producer and artist, fascinated about
space, time and the reason for existence Dream koala sources his inspiration from
the power of the mind, his music is very ambient, psychedelic and very “SPACEY”.

When asked about the origin of his name on an interview by Vogue magazine he
said “I like to compare humans with animals. Everybody I know tells me I’m a lazy
and sleepy daydreamer. Koalas sleep 20 hours a day; they spend more time
dreaming than doing anything else. I love when music makes you feel like you’re in
another dimension, when it transports you somewhere else, like a dream”.

Dream koala wrote his break out single titled Odyssey after waking up from a bad
dream where he saw himself die in a plane crash, the song features lyrics that read
“All these landscapes / I wish I had seen / what if there’s no tomorrow? / What if
theres no tomorrow? / If these planes crash tonight, / I couldn’t see today tomorrow...
” Describes his fear of dying without ever reaching his dreams.

Koala later commissioned 3D artist and illustrators Adrien Peze and Albin Merle to re
create his dreams for the songs music video. He continued to say that the song and
music video where set somewhere between dream and reality, between death and
life which directly relates to the myths of the Ojibwa tribes which believed that sleep
is between life and death.

Dream koala continues to explore his unconscious mind to inspire his music with the
song Dimensional sleeper which features lyrics that read “Cosmic pathways, the
portal opens wide and I perceive a hole into the void will lead me to the Gods” which
also relates to the ideas practiced by the Ojibwa tribe by using dream catchers as
gate ways into other dimension.

Album art