The sleep of reason produces monsters
Management: Dr. Mor Persiado, Dr. Olga Goldin, and Shira Tessler-Cohen
Curator: Olga Yerushalmy
Exhibition Venue: Bar-Ilan University, Naomi and Izzy Libler Exhibition Hall, Library and Information System (Building 401)
Dates: May 5, 2025 - July 23, 2025
My current solo exhibition, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters," explores themes that have occupied me deeply since childhood.
While the phrase 'The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters' originates from a famous work by Francisco Goya, my personal connection to it comes from a different place. As a child, I saw this very title on the cover of a book at home. I didn't read the book itself, but I was utterly captivated by the power of the words on its cover. They ignited my imagination, carrying me into faraway, self-invented stories that had nothing to do with the book's actual content. I remember grappling with those words, trying to grasp the meaning of how a mind's dreams could give rise to real monsters that could break out from the world of dreams into reality while our reason sleeps.
The saying itself, "the sleep of reason produces monsters," fascinated me even then, and I would constantly turn it over in my mind, trying to understand its depths, long before I encountered Goya's narrative. This early, personal interpretation of the phrase—the potential for inner darkness and the fragility of our hold on reality—has continued to inform my artistic exploration into adulthood.
The internal monsters awaken within us when we are tired, lonely, or in pain, and the fear arises that reality is losing its authority, its anchor. My reflections and introspection are not detached from reality, but are mirrored differently – in terms of time perception and as an internal metaphor. This exhibition is also a retrospective, bringing together 150 works from different periods of my life that, when seen together, weave a new and evolving narrative.
Press:
גלי התערוכה: התערוכות החדשות של השבוע
12.06.25, בית ועיצוב, walla
Ma Kore (What's going on) Yana Gorelik
"Portfolio", 09.05.2025
