Lucid Dreams

  • Dates
    2019 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Locations City of London, Australia, New York, Florida City

Itamar Freed and Kristina Chan present photographic works that search for vanishing notions of realness in the natural world. Influenced by post-impressionism, Japanese prints and contemporary photography, Lucid Dreams questions the veracity of the photograph in the tension between the real and the fantastic. As in a lucid dream, the artists control the narrative, characters and environment in the depicted landscapes. The work features photographs of places and sites the artists have visited, combined with images from curated environments such as museums, zoos, and digital materials. The artists question how images of places might displace or augment their understanding and memory of them. Each work began as a digital photograph that was then printed on Japanese paper as cyanotypes, lithographs, etchings

and pigment prints. By combining technological and traditional mediums the works are displaced in time and space, decontextualizing the image. The subject is isolated allowing the selective role of the human lens to come into focus. The seen and the associations and memories of the artists merge to form a narrative between the viewer and the place. An experiential space is crafted between fact and fiction, fantasy and reality. This allows the artists to reflect on their own displacement. Freed and Chan work with themes of geographic and physical displacement, and seek to preserve nature in the form of artefacts – historical objects that exist independently of a specific period in time. Chan’s work explores site-specific history and narratives. She seeks the intimacy and reverence of forgotten spaces, shaped to suit human needs that have been rendered obsolete. Freed’s work features habitats from across the globe, and questions the distinctions between natural and artificial, real and manufactured. landscapes, natural history museums, botanical gardens, zoos and the artist's studio are combined to create places that exist solely within the photographic frame.

© Itamar Freed - Orange Tree, 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper, 110x133 cm
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Orange Tree, 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper, 110x133 cm

© Itamar Freed - Cypress Tree I+II, 2019, Etching with chine colle on Zerkyl Natural 63 x 47 cm each
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Cypress Tree I+II, 2019, Etching with chine colle on Zerkyl Natural 63 x 47 cm each

© Itamar Freed - Peacock, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper 175 x 110 cm
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Peacock, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper 175 x 110 cm

© Itamar Freed - Barred Owl, 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper, 110x110 cm
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Barred Owl, 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper, 110x110 cm

© Itamar Freed - Oh Deer (polyptych), 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper 138 x 380 cm
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Oh Deer (polyptych), 2019, Photography, inkjet pigment print on archival Kozo Japanese paper 138 x 380 cm

© Itamar Freed - Dream in Blue (polyptych), Cyanotype on Tosa Wasa handmade Japanese paper, 160 X 360 cm or 80 x 60 cm each
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Dream in Blue (polyptych), Cyanotype on Tosa Wasa handmade Japanese paper, 160 X 360 cm or 80 x 60 cm each

© Itamar Freed - Aloe Vera I & II, 2019, Cyanotype on Tosa Wasa handmade Japanese paper, 60 x 70 cm each
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Aloe Vera I & II, 2019, Cyanotype on Tosa Wasa handmade Japanese paper, 60 x 70 cm each

© Itamar Freed - Lucid Dreams installation view
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Lucid Dreams installation view

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