EXHIBITION: SLEEPERS

My housemate just bought a cute little puppy, Alfred. The other day as we were sitting together watching TV and Alfred who was asleep, started quietly whimpering and kicking his feet. He was having a dream, I think a nightmare and as I watched him, I could only imagine that it was about a bigger dog chasing him. It’s impossible to know what the sleeper is dreaming while whisked away to that unknown ‘unconscious’ – be it animal or human but in her latest photographic exhibition, Olivia Martin-McGuire is undaunted by the challenge of exploring that, “Place of slipping out of the present”. Martin-McGuire was particular when selecting her models and says they’re, “Beautifully normal or unusual in order to get a real, humanistic series” that allowed her to, “Observe the interesting psychology that comes out in the body”. The positions, tangles and expressions of these life-size sleepers allow one to imagine just that – what might be stirring in the minds of these dreamers? A video installation will also exhibit the other thousands of images that couldn’t be printed, sleeping sounds included.

Mar 12–Apr 11, Australian Centre for Photography, 257 Oxford Street Paddington, 9332 1455, acp.org.au