Dreamscape: Portrait of a Nightmare
So I had this dream last night and wanted to record it somewhere before I forgot it. You just never know when something truly macabre will be of use.
I'm working in this huge, vast factory I suppose is the most accurate way to describe it. It was shaped like a hanger for a huge airliner, but was made entirely of reddish brown brick. Inside, was row upon row of...kilns, though each didn't fire particularly hot. They were more like huge industrial dehydrators. The air was dry, and there was a good deal of sand about the floor. The lighting was very dim. I cannot recall any shadows, it was more like the kind of lighting you get in a room with a lot of windows, on a very gray, cloudy day. None of this was overly unusual in and of itself...however what I found to be genuinely distress was what such a place was used for.
I was general floor manager of this facility, in charge of booking the kilns and seeing that operations ran smoothly. The facility was a huge studio used by artists who sculpted in organic matter. Their method of sculpting was less a matter of sculpting, and more a matter of butchering and mutilating cadavers, and in some instance, still live people and animals. Littered about the floor, drying in the warm, dry air were countless corpses mutilated in various ways. One artist specializing in the upper body and head had his work lying in the hallway. One body was an eviscerated upper torso in which the left arm was severed at the shoulder in a diagonal cleave extending downward, through the abdomen, exiting just above the right hip. The right hand and head were intact, though the lower portion of the body was nowhere to be seen. Another was just the crown of the head with short-cropped hair and scalp still attached. At the front of his array of severed heads were severed hands. One I can remember was a hand roughly chopped off at the wrist, with all but the middle and forefinger removed.
At one point I recall having open one of the small, heavy doors of a kiln to reveal a gigantic eel, still barely alive with very human eyes look up at me pathetically. The top of its skull had been neatly sliced off, and thin trickles of black blood ran down the side of its face.
It was at this time that I had an epiphany and was suddenly sickened by the sight, and the entire facility as a whole. I nearly collapsed that savagery and butchery were not only permitted, but were considered to be art! Most distressing of all was that this facility was located on a University campus, and that all of these "artists" were students.
After having thought on this for a day, I think I may have at least a semi-reasonable interpretation of what the origins of this may have been. Firstly, I would recall a similar feeling of unease after having seen the displays at Body Worlds. The fact that these were once real, living human beings disturbed me, particularly in the instance of a woman and unborn fetus.
Secondly I would hearken this back to the days when medical academies were short on cadavers, and certain unscrupulous individuals would resort to grave robbing and even murder to turn up bodies to sell. This fits into the picture in that some of the bodies were still alive when massacred in the name of art.
Thirdly, the film Hostel brought the dimension of institutionalized violence and butchery.
As for the meaning of this dream, I haven't the foggiest at this time. Though I recall at the time having something akin to it being symbolic of consumption, and to what extent things like Body Worlds and Hostel can be considered art. At what point can we exploit the body and death and acts of savagery to the ends of culture and financial gain?
I'm working in this huge, vast factory I suppose is the most accurate way to describe it. It was shaped like a hanger for a huge airliner, but was made entirely of reddish brown brick. Inside, was row upon row of...kilns, though each didn't fire particularly hot. They were more like huge industrial dehydrators. The air was dry, and there was a good deal of sand about the floor. The lighting was very dim. I cannot recall any shadows, it was more like the kind of lighting you get in a room with a lot of windows, on a very gray, cloudy day. None of this was overly unusual in and of itself...however what I found to be genuinely distress was what such a place was used for.
I was general floor manager of this facility, in charge of booking the kilns and seeing that operations ran smoothly. The facility was a huge studio used by artists who sculpted in organic matter. Their method of sculpting was less a matter of sculpting, and more a matter of butchering and mutilating cadavers, and in some instance, still live people and animals. Littered about the floor, drying in the warm, dry air were countless corpses mutilated in various ways. One artist specializing in the upper body and head had his work lying in the hallway. One body was an eviscerated upper torso in which the left arm was severed at the shoulder in a diagonal cleave extending downward, through the abdomen, exiting just above the right hip. The right hand and head were intact, though the lower portion of the body was nowhere to be seen. Another was just the crown of the head with short-cropped hair and scalp still attached. At the front of his array of severed heads were severed hands. One I can remember was a hand roughly chopped off at the wrist, with all but the middle and forefinger removed.
At one point I recall having open one of the small, heavy doors of a kiln to reveal a gigantic eel, still barely alive with very human eyes look up at me pathetically. The top of its skull had been neatly sliced off, and thin trickles of black blood ran down the side of its face.
It was at this time that I had an epiphany and was suddenly sickened by the sight, and the entire facility as a whole. I nearly collapsed that savagery and butchery were not only permitted, but were considered to be art! Most distressing of all was that this facility was located on a University campus, and that all of these "artists" were students.
After having thought on this for a day, I think I may have at least a semi-reasonable interpretation of what the origins of this may have been. Firstly, I would recall a similar feeling of unease after having seen the displays at Body Worlds. The fact that these were once real, living human beings disturbed me, particularly in the instance of a woman and unborn fetus.
Secondly I would hearken this back to the days when medical academies were short on cadavers, and certain unscrupulous individuals would resort to grave robbing and even murder to turn up bodies to sell. This fits into the picture in that some of the bodies were still alive when massacred in the name of art.
Thirdly, the film Hostel brought the dimension of institutionalized violence and butchery.
As for the meaning of this dream, I haven't the foggiest at this time. Though I recall at the time having something akin to it being symbolic of consumption, and to what extent things like Body Worlds and Hostel can be considered art. At what point can we exploit the body and death and acts of savagery to the ends of culture and financial gain?