The Psychedelic Language of Dreams in a Digital Exhibit

Leif Podhajsky and Eva Papamargariti collaborate on colorful dreamscapes.

February 5, 2016, 11:33pm

Prosomiosis, Eva Papamargariti, courtesy of the artist

Expect an eyecatching dream journey through abstract and psychedelic visuals in Leif Podhajsky and Eva Papamargariti’s collaborative digitized environment. Despite using different approaches, references and aesthetics, prolific graphic designer and art director Podhajsky and new media artist Papamargariti, find common ground within the exhibit The Language of Dreams at the Hoxton Gallery in London as part of the Red Bull Studio Collectives series.

This one-of-a-kind program offers participants an opportunity to team up with established artists, allowing each to enhance their practice by taking advantage of their partner expertise and technical skill. On view until Monday, the duo’s effort provides viewers with a fluid series of visual studies that point out contradictions like digital vs. organic and static vs. motion. There is also a subtle message of how we can feel alone when it comes to decoding visual matter, especially in a dream.

The Language of Dreams II, Leif Podhajsky, courtesy of the artist

Thus, this exhibition is a journey that ranges from videos to prints, breaking down walls between consciousness and unconsciousness, questioning the complexity of visual mechanics. We asked Papamargariti about this dream project:

The Creators Project: Tell us about the genesis of this collaboration.

Eva Papamargariti: Leif contacted me initially because he felt that we both share a common language in what we do. Although the outcome of our creative process is quite different, the tools and the syntactic rules behind it sometimes are very similar. We both use digital tools and our works explore in different ways the notion of organic forms, constructed geometries, textures and ‘intangible materiality’. So it wasn’t hard to agree to do this together.

Prosomiosis, Eva Papamargariti, courtesy of the artist

It seems that the collaborative format of the exhibition is pretty particular. Can you explain the workflow?

Each of us showed their personal projects on the exhibition, so I would say that the collaboration exists on this connecting mechanism that exists between our work. Of course we had some discussions on the approach we wanted to follow, we exchanged links, visual, and theoretical triggers and references. We had some phrases/tags in our minds too, such as ‘morphed movement’, or ‘digital organic patterns’.

I think that there is a very intriguing link between the moving image, animated work of mine and Leif’s prints. I think that Leif’s prints although they are static images they contain a certain kind of motion, they look like still frames from a potential motion sequence, they contain energy which created automatically a strong rhizomatic connection with my work.

The Syntactical Nature of Reality, Leif Podhajsky, courtesy of the artist

What is the concept behind the show?

The title of the show is The Language of Dreams. I think what interests us the most is this contradiction that exists within the phrase. On one hand there is language that is syntactical and follows a set of codes and structures. It is a solid construction and then there are dreams which link to the ‘universe’ of simulation, imagination, virtual reality, the unexplainable or the paradox. The creative process of our work is situated between these two ideas, we are pursuing a symbiosis between digital techniques and organic outcomes, but also we are inspired by the existence of these elements in the world around us and especially by the process that brings these disparate bits and parts together in a natural—not forced— way.