Surgery of Dreams
An Exhibition of Surreal Curiosities
By
Michael Mayhew
An Exhibition of Surreal Curiosities
By
Michael Mayhew
Surgery of Dreams takes the book and seals it, negating it as a book.
The book is transformed into an object, a corpse, because books are living entities.
The artist takes this object and treats it as a body under surgery, by taking a scalpel and slicing into the covers (flesh), into the pages (tissue), and through the words (blood & flesh).
He implants objects that are purposefully emotive, dynamic poetic ignitions of the human psyche.
The book is brought back to life like Shelly’s Frankenstein’s creature:
Surgery of Dreams is an act of creation.
The book is transformed into an object, a corpse, because books are living entities.
The artist takes this object and treats it as a body under surgery, by taking a scalpel and slicing into the covers (flesh), into the pages (tissue), and through the words (blood & flesh).
He implants objects that are purposefully emotive, dynamic poetic ignitions of the human psyche.
The book is brought back to life like Shelly’s Frankenstein’s creature:
Surgery of Dreams is an act of creation.
Surgery of Dreams is an act of creation.
Each work is uniquely crafted: they are not decorative pieces of folly but aim to
be a reflection on what books are and so who we are as a species.
They are one offs and like books themselves crafted with the knowledge that they will probably out live you.
Each implant evokes its own story and this is one of the reasons for Surgery of
Dreams, for you to invest something of your imagination into the book, to bring it back to life.
There is an undisputed surreal nature to this collection.
The implants reflect our internal landscapes, provoking our imaginations to invest into the hidden qualities of what it is to be human, what it is to be alive and yes, what it is to die.
Like the human psyche the book is closed; what lies within our hidden dream
worlds also lies within the covers of books:
Our Books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and who we have been, our books hold the share of pages granted to Us from the Book of Life.
(The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel)
The implanted objects are gathered, donated, found, and stolen.
They are partly autobiographical in their nature, they are my books and they each carry their own story.
By implanting them into a book and exhibiting them so publicly I invite you to tell your own, they no longer remain solely mine, but shared with my own species.
Each work is uniquely crafted: they are not decorative pieces of folly but aim to
be a reflection on what books are and so who we are as a species.
They are one offs and like books themselves crafted with the knowledge that they will probably out live you.
Each implant evokes its own story and this is one of the reasons for Surgery of
Dreams, for you to invest something of your imagination into the book, to bring it back to life.
There is an undisputed surreal nature to this collection.
The implants reflect our internal landscapes, provoking our imaginations to invest into the hidden qualities of what it is to be human, what it is to be alive and yes, what it is to die.
Like the human psyche the book is closed; what lies within our hidden dream
worlds also lies within the covers of books:
Our Books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and who we have been, our books hold the share of pages granted to Us from the Book of Life.
(The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel)
The implanted objects are gathered, donated, found, and stolen.
They are partly autobiographical in their nature, they are my books and they each carry their own story.
By implanting them into a book and exhibiting them so publicly I invite you to tell your own, they no longer remain solely mine, but shared with my own species.