TheSameDream, 2005
Red Installation 1200x1200mm, Green 1200x1200mm, Blue 1200x1200mm/Metal paper, Pater/Image Board/2005
This work was inspired by the famous “butterfly dream,” told by Zhuangzi - an ancient Chinese philosopher. Zhuangzi ruminated, “How can I determine whether I am Zhuangzi, who has dreamt of becoming a butterfly, or a butterfly, who dreams about becoming Zhuangzi?” Zhuangzi’s thinking suggests that it is pointless to separate human existence from the nature.
Given that a modern man or woman can’t dream of becoming a part of the nature, one can at least create a world of images, for every day of life. You can become a whale in your imaginary journey into the underwater world. If you’re a hardworking student, you may either dream of studying hours without resting, or better yet dream of flying up in the sky as a Superman or Superwoman.
What do these dreams mean to us? We can ask with Zhuangzi, “Is the reality the dream world, or the dream world is our reality?”
I assume that - in my designs - the characters in our dreams could be from other worlds. May be we are their dreams, not the other way around. For example, many egos, inside me, appear one by one in my dreams. If a character in my dream tonight is a businessman, maybe someone in the world would dream the same dream tomorrow.
Different dreams of different people relate to each other. Dreams we dream can be alike and hard to distinguish one from another. I focus on this in my designs. The space and buildings surrounded by the Mobius Strip prove that the reality and dream are closely connected. Creative installations may look one way in the real world and completely the opposite in the dream world.
