IBID Gallery presents the exhibition "Sleep" from September 24 to November 19 2016, in its NEW building at 670 South Anderson Street downtown Los Angeles.
The title of this show touches on a mood, rather than on an abstract concept of sleep: the presentation includes a number of works that illustrate the dimension of dreaming, of surrender, and of submission to states of trance and slumber.
In Greek mythology Hypnos (Sleep) is the brother of Thanatos (Death) and the son of Nyx (the Night) and Erebus (Darkness). He lives by the river Lethe, source of forgetfulness. His children include Morpheus (Shape: the Inducer of Dreams in human form) Phobetor (Fear: the Inducer of Dreams in animal form) and Phantasos (Imagination: Inducer of Prophetic dreams)—all begotten with Pasithea, goddess of relaxation and hallucinations.
As Hypnos inhabits half of our lives, it seems appropriate that an exhibition be dedicated to its influence, addressing our necessary abandonment to night, fatigue and oblivion. The works on show will allude to an extended family of Hypnos, from the inducer of letting-go to the memory of languor: from the darkness of night to the oblivion of death.
This exhibition includes a tapestry by Ed Ruscha, Industrial Strength Sleep, produced in 2006 with The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia; works on paper by Janis Avotins, Robert Gober, Jorge Macchi, Paul Thek, Rosemarie Trockel, and two paper stack works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
A special installation section of the show is dedicated to manuscripts by three American poets. Within the manuscript section, Ginger Zaimis' will present a new work/poetic installation (Egyptian black ink on paper 100 cm x 200 cm) written and dedicated to Ed Ruscha's, Industrial Strength Sleep, installation with the same title.
The manuscript section pays homage to the personification of sleep (Hypnos) in the classical world through the poet's perception and text-tile of their poetic oeuvre. “Sleep” is curated by Paolo Colombo.