Dreamland

Dreamland is a place where you find yourself unexpectedly. You are heading into the library or the courthouse or the museum and suddenly you come across a bed. There is someone sitting in a rocking chair reading aloud. You lie down and listen. It takes you to another place.

Our project is to take you to this place.  We bring in a these props and create a setting and then we invite participation, investigation, and experience.  To make the project work it requires interaction and trust. We are choosing to trust that people will respond and join and people are given the choice to trust us to bring them to a place of wonder. There is something magical about the bizarreness of the scene we are setting. We have witnessed face after face light up when they realize what we are offering them. In this project we are interrupting the day-to-day in order to remind people what is possible.  This is a repetitive process, it is done again and again in different spaces in order to reach a wider audience. We want to offer this to a wide diversity of people throughout the city, to offer this moment of whimsy and this glimpse into what is possible.

Our process so far has been to haul our own furniture from our homes into a park. We have carried a bed, a table, a chair and all the other components of our set up a hill. We set up our bed, our room, our lights and people are immediately interested. We are peppered with questions throughout the entire process. We talk with people, we answer questions, we joke and we invite. We start, taking turns in the rocking chair, reading to whomever has gathered, a short story. People walk up, sit down, listen. Some stay for a while, some drift off and sleep a little, some sit for only a minute or two then walk away. Others take photos, pose in front of our set up. No matter the level of interaction, people notice, talk, smile, laugh.

Funded by Portland, OR (November 2013)