THE LANTERN
Where once the sun and moon would synchronize us to their rhythms of light and dark, electrification has contributed to the dwindling of shared night experiences. The Lantern is an experiment in ritualizing the liminal state between wakefulness and dreaming as a collective co-composition, a new ceremony across different temporalities of sleep. Based on the strange marriage of mythological figures, The Lantern is a shrouded time portal aimed at fostering a collective oneiric experience.
In Hindu and Buddhist traditions, Naga is a mythological figure who dwells in the watery underworld, guarding treasures and possessing great wisdom. Naga represents the cycle of life and death, and is revered as a symbol of power, protection, and transformation. In ancient Greece, the abaton–the innermost chamber of the Greek Asklepion complex–is where visitors would sleep collectively to "incubate" prophetic dreams and seek healing from “incubus” spirits, leaving behind the testimonies of their encounter. These ritualistic and shared scenes of retreat and restoration promote shared healing and the collective dreaming of the future into being. Across these traditions, The Lantern confabulates a ritual for today in a folded, penumbral chamber.
The Lantern, done in collaboration with Professor Richard Sommer, Bangkok-based artist Henry Tan, Taipei-based artist/playwright Ding Yun Huang, and a team of University of Toronto architecture students, was conceived and fabricated as part of three-week summer intensive workshop.
Following the workshop, we installed The Lantern in the mezzanine of the Agora d’Hydro-Quebec at the Universite de Quebec a Montreal, as part of the group exhibition InSomnolence curated by the Sociability of Sleep Research Project. Visitors to the exhibition were encouraged to ascend to the exhibition’s loft-like space and gather in the thresholds of The Lantern, after having chosen a soft-sleep-induction charm spun from the recollected dreams of student storytellers.
SLEEP/DREAM INDUCTION CHARMS:
Student participants, inspired by the ancient Greek clay votives offered to the god Askelpious, developed sleep-induction charms that were culled from their individual dreams.
The protocols for the charms were as follows:
Record your dreams each night in writing (and drawing if possible) ideally the moment you rise or begin to be conscious.
Identify, Remember, or Conjure some-thing that came to you in your dreams, or that you associate with a dream or the stuff of your sleep.
-There will likely be many things that come-to-mind but try to select something that can be found (already exists in the world) – i.e., that is already in your possession, or that you can easily find or purchase. The object in question must be smaller than a bag of potato chips, but not bigger than something you could carry with you in a car, bus, or train. These objects will be left in the exhibition.
Draft a message/story about your object.
-Once the Workshop begins, each student will record their message/story to embed in the charm. For those of you that speak more than one language, or for whom English is not your first language we would like you consider composing your message/story in a language you are comfortable in. We are hoping a few of you might record your messages in French, to engage the bilingual reality of Montreal.
At the workshop, each of you will be cladding/wrapping your object in a unique way.
–Please bring any fabrics or textiles you might have that you are willing to cut up, and that might have some association with your sleep – old blankets, pajamas, sheet/pillowcases, or anything else.
CREDITS