Planet of Dreams 2022 is a multimedia body of dream research, something I have been preoccupied with since the movie series Night, Sleep &Dream 2008.
This project began on Cape Cod and followed me to South Carolina, to Spain, to Washington DC, and then North Portugal.
In dream, the subconscious talks with the conscious. Dream is a tool, always at work on problems, creativity, survival. And in this moment of planetary crisis and cosmic consciousness, radical methods of earth and solar system commons stewardship are needed. Planet of Dreams proposes alternative perspectives for the future of humanity; suggesting dream-related practice based in indigenous land use, shamanic guidance, mythology, speculative-futures architectural schemes, magic, Jungian dreamtime, poetry, experimental time-based works, asemic code, and conceptual performance. In life, though we rely on technology, dream and intuition direct us. 'In what ways can the dream state guide us?’
The place to study yourself is in your dreams. How is it possible to know so much about everything and yet it comes from a place that is nothing you know?
Film chapters:
Goose Moon Owl was made during the American Indian moon cycle, Goose Moon, on tribal lands in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The calls of the birds were considered spiritual messages. Soundscape of recorded and found owl calls. http://www.arteidolia.com/fast-clouded-full-moon-by-cecelia-chapman/
Space Life Dreams is a speculative haiku poem and architectural scheme, in a space-tribal, nomad-communal future. Jeff Crouch music. NASA images. https://vimeo.com/628509930
Nuclear Forest was made in Aiken, South Carolina's Hitchcock Woods, the country’s largest privately owned urban forest. And it is made in the Savannah River Site Museum of the 198,000 acre reservation for America’s plutonium storage, tritium production and military and space dreams. Jeff Crouch music.
https://www.calamaripress.com/SF/2020/14_Chapman_Crouch.htm
DreamTown USA explores the town of Aiken, South Carolina, in lush horse country, down the road from the nuclear reactor plant. Jeff Crouch music. https://www.calamaripress.com/SF/2020/14_Chapman_Crouch.htm
Nomad Dreams, the Sorceress, the Flying Saucer and the Moon is made in South Carolina, once part of the Spanish Empire and it's dream of El Dorado in a territory of dreamers, fortune hunters, adventurers, pirates, runaway slaves, and displaced Indians. Jeff Crouch music.
https://leserpent.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/die-leere-mitte-issue-13-rimae/
Magic Dream, URHere Now was made in Galicia, Spain. At the edge of empires, a terrain of neolithic consciousness, it produced master builders who dreamed of sailing past the setting sun. Diana Magallon and Gabriel Valecillos music. Rafael Gonzalez drawings. http://www.arteidolia.com/cecelia-chapman-planet-of-dreams/
Wolf Queen, Wolf Queen considers the 7th century Galician Queen Lupa whose political dreams freaked out Rome, Catholic Church, and early empire powers. She skilfully outwitted them all. Visigoths, annoying pilgrims dragging the body of their Apostle all over her territory, and an 11th century monk's attempts to erase her from history failed. The movie examines the relationship between historical record, myth, and institutional narrative. Tamara Pereira and Sayuri. Jeff Crouch music. http://www.arteidolia.com/cecelia-chapman-planet-of-dreams/
Last Time Tomorrow is made on the Portugal coast railway. Deforestation is happening so fast, consider your dream house materials....the consequences of your dream. https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2022/06/cecelia-chapman.html
Dream Come True. I returned to the US to renew my visa, spending almost two months in Washington DC. The day of my departure, a taxi driver suddenly related one of his grandmother's dreams that always came true. Jeff Crouch music. Smithsonian Museums, Washington DC.
Planet of Dreams began on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There I wrote the essay Violent Altars, made the film Goose Moon Owl, and 3 watercolor series. These works drew on first peoples' tribal dreams in their sacred, paradisiacal, ice age old peninsula. Tribes gathered on the Cape to powwow, hunt, exchange ideas 10,000 years before European religious political refugees arrived with their own dreams of
SELECTED WORKS:
I Have Known Rivers. Series of 3. Watercolor, 11 x 15 inches, 27.9 x 38.1 cm.
I moved to South Carolina. There I made two Oracle Books, two Dream Collector books, the Shaman Trees photographs, Einstein's Dreams collage, and the movies Nuclear Forest, DreamTown USA, Nomad Dreams, Space Life Dreams and the performance piece, Guardian Cloak.
South Carolina was Paleoindian nation for 40,000-14,000 years, before it became the Spanish Empire's search for El Dorado. It was a landscape overrun with dreamers, fortune hunters, pirates, runaway slaves, later US politicians, and wealthy vacationers, Cold War nuclear and military installations.
Guardian Cloak and Feather Mask, performance work and movie.
Oracle Books, two 10 page unique books. Drawing, painting, personal stamps, stamps collage, 5 x 7 inches, 12.7 x 17.8 cm.
Dream Hunter. Ritual objects, amulets, charms, talismans assist in a dream journey, attracting good luck or repelling bad luck. Watercolor, collage, drawing, painting, personal stamps, 9 x 12 inches, 22.8 x 30.4 cm. Series of 4. https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2022/10/cecelia-chapman.html
Dream Collector I and II 2021. Personal and sourced photographs, South Carolina, NASA. Book, 20 pages, 5.9 x 8 inches, 13 x 20 cm Black metal coil binding, vinyl cover, archival print, heavyweight matte paper, printed one side. $50.00.
http://www.arteidolia.com/the-dream-collector-by-cecelia-chapman/
I relocated from South Carolina to the west coast of Spain, Galicia. Romans feared Galicia, called it bewitched and magic. They called it 'the end of the world.' A smuggler, pirate coast, port of call for the New World. Galicia bewildered all the empires that tried to assimilate it into their culture. In Galicia I made the movies Magic Dream, Last Time Tomorrow, and Wolf Queen. Here, Wolf Queen s
Galicia, the Iberian Peninsula, produced master builders of iconic Gothic architecture, who dreamed of sailing to the New World. After the Catholic Church gave the New World to Spain to explore and exploit, conquistadores poured the wealth of their conquests into Santiago Church. Today, pilgrims journey on the sacred Caminha, a centuries old road to Santiago. Here, Magic Dream still.
I returned to the US to renew my visa and spent almost two months in bureaucratic captivity in Washington DC. I was overwhelmed by the present and past layers of consciousness in the marble federal city built on dreams. I was able to fulfil my dream of visiting all the Smithsonian Museums...beginning here. George Catlin, Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon's Egg Head Going To and Returning From Washington, 1837
The war in Ukraine began: traffic helicopters, sirens, stressful military presence and high alert. The day of my departure from DC, a taxi driver suddenly related one of his grandmother's dreams that always came true.
Here, Smithsonian complex.