From the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography website:
“Susan kae Grant’s long-term project “NIGHT JOURNEY” is on view at the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, January 19 – March 16, 2008
Photographic visualizations based on personal dream researches.
52/56 Avenue A at Second Street, Downtown Turners Falls, Massachusetts
About Night Journeys & Susan kae Grant
“Night Journeys” embodies the collaboration of artistic creativity and sleep laboratory methodology in the exploration of REM sleep, memory, and the unconscious. The work is composed of a series of intriguingly haunting large-scale images that recreate the fragmented and multi sensorial experience of dreaming. The inspiration for the project came from the artist’s desire to conduct an inquiry into the subconscious, which led to her experiences sleeping as a subject in a sleep laboratory.
To produce the work, Grant collaborated with John Herman, PhD, at the sleep research laboratory of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. To access unconscious visual memory, Grant used herself as subject and was digitally monitored and awakened from REM sleep and then interrogated by trained technicians. Grant used the tapes of these narrative interviews as inspiration to create the imagery for the series.
The shadow gestures depicted in the images suggest a fragmented narrative as they shift in and out of focus signifying the impermanent quality of the dream-state. To create the gestures and narratives inspired by the dream recordings, Grant photographs shadows of models and props in her studio.
The Night Journeys series examines the perceptual and psychological aspects of the dream-state and provides a pictorial access to the unconscious. It raises universal questions among viewers and re-creates an unexplainable experience all humans share.
Susan kae Grant resides and maintains her studio in Dallas, Texas. She was awarded an MFA in Photography and Book Arts from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and has been a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Texas Woman’s University for many years.
Ms. Grant has also lectured internationally at museums and galleries, as well as teaching at the International Center for Photography, New York. The Society for Photographic Education has twice presented her with awards for teaching excellence, as has The Santa Fe Center for Photography.
Susan has exhibited her photographic work in Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and Japan, in addition to many venues in the U.S. She was recently honored with a thirty-year retrospective exhibition in Dallas, Texas. Her work may be found in many collections including: J. Paul Getty Museum, New York Public Library, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, George Eastman House and The Victoria and Albert Museum National Library.
Night Journeys will be the Inaugural Exhibition in Hallmark Museum’s new gallery facilities at 52/56 Avenue A at the corner of 2nd Street.”
Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson 