Untitled (re-working 1996 dream, “I see a huge circular hole that goes all the way through a mountain”)

David Reisman, artist

born 1958

Untitled (re-working 1996 dream, “I see a huge circular hole that goes all the way through a mountain”), 2017

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: colored pencil; paper

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 594 x 410 mm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 23 3/8 x 16 1/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 32 x 24 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund

Accession number: 2018.0042

Not on display

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Much of David Reisman’s art is inspired by his dreams, which he thinks of as found material. Reisman states that “… while we are asleep ordinary places like bars, movie theaters, schools, amusement parks, workplaces, and childhood neighborhoods become strangely unfamiliar.” Reisman began keeping a daily record of his dreams in the 1990s as a way of finding new sources of subject matter for his work. This drawing is from a recent series of artworks that reinterpret entries from Reisman’s dream journals, selections of which were published in Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings (2004).
Reisman states: “Humor is an important part of dreams, and a huge circular hole that goes all the way through a mountain is ridiculous at first. At the same time, the idea also suggests ambitious earthworks like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and James Turrell’s Roden Crater. It’s possible that with the right set of circumstances, commitment, and money, a dream like this could become a reality. There are also natural formations that are similar—for example, Torghatten in Norway, and Tianmen Mountain in China.”