Walk, Look, Listen, Think, Spend some time daydreaming

You, a notebook, a pencil and the elements. Write, Sketch, Score.

A Place For Dreaming was made whilst Sheila was artist in residence at Pitzhanger Manor and Walpole Park in Ealing in summer 2013. The piece emerged out of research into John Soanes, taking regular walks alone in the park and in response to some observations in Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust (pg 289) :

“...the fight for free space – for wildernesses and for public space - must be accompanied by a fight for free time to spend wandering in that space. Otherwise the undervalued imagination will be bulldozed over for the chain-store outlets of consumer appetites, true crime titillation and celebrity crises.”

So far the piece has been shown only as work-in-progress at Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing. 

What Happens in the Work?

The piece is a participatory activity which members of the public are invited to interact with (if they want to) in order to build up a kind of 'library of day-dreaming'. At present it consists of a set of hand-printed notebooks and pencils presented under a chandelier, a number of movement sensitive battery powered song-birds and some instructions about how to take part.

In the future the piece will include hand-made dream cushions containing a mixture of herbs collected from Pitzhanger's kitchen garden (purportedly supposed to induce dreaming) and embellished blankets / chairs 'to sit under, on or in'. The work will be developed to tour around libraries (echoing an earlier use of the Manor) and places that are interested in encouraging audience to make use of their facilities and locale in a slightly different way to normal.

Get in touch if you'd like to support the project to completion!

 

Thankyou for the notebook. Did you say it’s ok if we keep it? My 5 year old son Nicolae and I wrote some rambling thoughts (which could be dreams or part of dreams) in the beautiful sunshine weather. I’m glad we were able to take part in your project even in a small way.
— A Place For Dreaming participant