Sleep Archives - Museum of Photocopies

SleepLife Dream Log #3

A few weeks ago the Photocopier collated some answers about the sleep life of important professionals in the music business, in the upstairs room of a Groningen pub. Some of those answers (spread over four separate posts) are to be seen here. One can only wonder; what does sleep really mean to us, during our never-ending lives?

Sleep_Life_Sleep_Log_1 — The Photocopier asked some of his friends in the music business how they slept. Some of the answers are very revealing, some tug at the heartstrings and make The Photocopier want to illustrate their experiences, others are brief to the point of emotionally stunted. What do these answers hide, or tell? This is from a Russian. The makeshift questionnaire came to being when The Photocopier found a strange printed set of forms in his works copier; the fields filled with what looked liked a number of stuck keys, specifically z’s and i’s. This seemed appropriate to use in Sleep Life.

Sleep Life Dream Log 3 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photocopy of a form found in the office of WORM Rotterdam. The Photocopier asked some of his friends in the music business how they slept. Some of the answers are very revealing, some tug at the heartstrings and make The Photocopier want to illustrate their experiences, others are brief to the point of emotionally stunted. What do these answers hide, or tell? This is from a Belarusian. The makeshift questionnaire came to being when The Photocopier found a strange printed set of forms in his works copier; the fields filled with what looked liked a number of stuck keys, specifically z’s and i’s. This seemed appropriate to use in Sleep Life.

Sleep Life Dream Log 9 — A photograph of a photocopy of a photocopy of a form found in the office of WORM Rotterdam. The Photocopier asked some of his friends in the music business how they slept. Some of the answers are very revealing, some tug at the heartstrings and make The Photocopier want to illustrate their experiences, others are brief to the point of emotionally stunted. What do these answers hide, or tell? This is from a Dutchman. The makeshift questionnaire came to being when The Photocopier found a strange printed set of forms in his works copier; the fields filled with what looked liked a number of stuck keys, specifically z’s and i’s. This seemed appropriate to use in Sleep Life.

Sleep Life Dream Log 17 — A photograph of a photocopy of a pencil drawing. The Photocopier once started drawing images that made him sleepy or had an inherently tiring element to them. These images – taken from various sources (the suffering of WW2 prisoners, young people being young) make him very sleepy.

Sleeplife #2

Together with two good friends of great artistic repute, the Photocopier has embarked on a new, ongoing project called Sleeplife. Quite what Sleeplife means is anybody’s guess. But the Photocopier and his friends agree on one point: Sleeplife is pretty much all we have left.

Given the subject of sleep has been misunderstood, abused or harnessed into many things over the years that have nothing to do with it – or employed as the courtier to our rampantly egotistical and psychotically-squeezed waking state – it’s maybe time to add to that confusion.

We are all agreed on that.

The first seeds of confusion – and eventual absolution – were sown in a gloomy December week in Brussels, a city with many lives and psychic arteries. Manifestos, explanations, actions, reflections and other artistic or socio-cultural bricolage will all be photocopied and added here; as is my wont.

These posts will show the Photocopier’s modest contribution. The work of Charlien Adriaenssens and Larissa Monteiro are “deep linked”, daddy-oh. They may, or may not post about Sleeplife. Who can tell?

A photograph of a string of photocopies and a drawing imposed on a wall in Brussels Schaerbeek. The photocopies were first stitched together and then sellotaped strategically to the wall (which displayed a treatise on the politics of sex; the remnant of the previous exhibition). Here we see photocopies employed as imps of legend, there to obfuscate, upturn or confuse. No answer need be given. Image sources are: Polish film posters, Czech communist-era toys made from industrial waste, images from the Photocopier’s own imagination and a pencil illustration from a book about the Black Death. Part of the opening – and ending – of the inaugural Sleeplife residency (KAK Brussels, December 8-12, 2019, CE). Next to the copies we see a long strip of wallpaper with the Photocopier’s drawings of skulls and a remarkable silver bear head found at the Residency, denoting frustration at his lack of sleep on the first night. This was taken during the show. The dingy light appeals.

A photograph of a string of photocopies, imposed on a wall in Brussels Schaerbeek. The photocopies were first stitched together and then sellotaped strategically to the wall (which displayed a treatise on the politics of sex; the remnant of the previous exhibition). Here we see photocopies employed as imps of legend, there to obfuscate, upturn or confuse. No answer need be given. Image sources are: Czech communist-era toys made from industrial waste, and an approximation (from memory) of the horses drawn by C19th illustrator, Edmund Dulac. Part of the opening – and ending – of the inaugural Sleeplife residency (KAK Brussels, December 8-12, 2019, CE). This was taken during the show. The light (from a ground light used to illuminate other works) may lend a certain poignancy to the juxtaposition of the slogan and children’s toy and horse drawings.

Sleeplife #1

We are all agreed on that.