Kimberley Bermender
Liminal Space: Where the Conscious and Unconscious Meet to Dance
Dreams are so personal and yet we see patterns of dream that span individuals, peoples and even across cultures. I believe that powerful dreams come from the collective space of humanity and that we can recognize ourselves and each other in these recurring dreams. Liminal Space: Where the Unconscious and Conscious Meet To Dance is a fine art portrait series of digital photo montages that are based on my own dreams and the dreams of my ‘archetypal collaborators’ in this process. This series takes place in liminal space; I recreate dreams recorded from the unconscious and present them within the realm of the conscious for the viewer’s experience. These are not works of fantasy, but an exploration of our other-conscious dreams that are invited into the conscious world through this process of photographic montage. Through the last years, I have discovered the power of dream analysis and active imagination as ways to deal with trauma. My dreams during this time have been vivid, sometimes overwhelming. I have maintained a dream journal and have seen the powerful patterns of my dreams as my unconscious-self worked through loss, grief and transition at a level which my conscious mind could not cope. By first visiting my own dream journals and then working with other women’s recurring and vivid dreams we find patterns that resonate between us; creating a visual and written tribute to that commonality inspired this body of work. In Liminal Space: Where the Unconscious and Conscious Meet To Dance my subjects, including myself, are women in the cycle of menopause. In the cycle of a woman’s life this is a complicated time, much akin to the transformational phase of puberty. There is often a sense of loss and It is also a time of renewal, transformation, grief, joy and a sense of coming into oneself. It is the time of a powerful internal journey, but it is also a time when a woman’s space in society often diminishes. I have heard that “as a woman and you get older, you begin to become invisible.” To focus my lens on women of this age is to give space and voice to a potent time of life, one that is often overlooked and undervalued in a society that treasures youth and beauty. Our dreams provide us with a landscape in which to explore this change; to rediscover our personal mythos.
