Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Dream, 2001

The neon symbol installation, which appears like an isolated impression excerpted from everyday Asian life, is presented here as a site-specific image achieved by the blue background. The Japanese Chinese-derived character or pictogram ‘夢/mèng’ (‘dream’) can mean a number of different things and is composed of abstract elements, but also includes a kind of schematic representation. In the case of the dream symbol, the upper part of the character indicates the eyebrows, the central part suggests the roof of a house or a bed, and the lower section signifies ‘evening.’ A dream may also function as a mediator when reality (or perceived reality) conflicts with the subject’s desires. The dream symbol, which might be more negatively interpreted as ‘false perception’ or ‘not seeing clearly,’ would be mediated by the lit-up script as an object that commands a fleeting affective gratification, as an unsatisfied or impossibly to satisfy desire for intense experiences and for escapism – a desire that is often exploited by commercial operations and by the media.