Between Sleeping and Waking

Is it real, or just a dream? The existence, if not always the meaning, of the mental processes we undergo while sleeping, and in the spaces between sleeping and waking, are undoubted. It’s never just a dream.

Sleeping and Waking is dominated by Kate McDonnell’s immersive installation Night Tides, which evokes the restlessness, the disconnected thoughts, and whispered prayers of insomnia.

On the walls facing this installation are a range of artworks, made by Bethlem Hospital patients and others over a period of two hundred years, that speak to themes in archetypal dreams and nightmares, as identified by sleep researchers; being chased, going to school, being late and many more. The fact that such dreams are widely shared forges a series of connections between these visionary artists and their diverse audiences, and is a strong affirmation of our common humanity. 

The exhibition features never-before-exhibited objects, including dream diaries written by the late Maudsley Hospital psychiatrist Dr Edward Hare, and a striking dream drawing by artist William Kurelek.

Everything is Real Except God and Death, George Harding, 2010