the stuff of nightmares

As you walk past this installation you are suddenly hit by a child like sense of sensitivity and fear of greater things (e.g. wildlife) which you could say has been very much truthfully retold by the fact that the exhibit was made by local schoolchildren. The space is transformed into a sinister atmosphere most progressively by the sounds that are played out adding a haunting sense of nature’s presence. For example a baby is shown hanging from the clasps of a black bird showing a sense of innocence that is being somehow lost or taken away.  However it is not all sinister here, there is a sense of a fairy tale whereby good and bad are ever present. This is displayed in the sense of innocence that is displayed as the stories have been told and retold to successive generations. There a sense of common themes being developed here in how good triumphs evil, heroes behave selflessly and a sense of everyone living happily ever after.

A row of bears of all shapes and sizes are displayed to the opposite of the installation displaying a sense of nostalgia and innocence that is also strangely present in the installation piece opposite (which has been made not only by young school children but also by artists who led the sessions, this is displayed in the overall orchestration of the objects which is in no way childlike).

The various bears displayed all hold a sense of individual character thus giving them a sense of child like presence as they are treated as subjects of individual comfort and importance.

The orchestration of the trees and the sounds incorporated give a sense of the sinister unknown terrors which plague many a child’s nightmares, hence the title ‘the stuff of nightmares’, this exhibit forces us to confront our childhood insecurities and pushes those common fears to the forefront of our minds, putting it into reality and real terms.