I Intend to Count Lambs
As a pathway to accessing the dream realm, counting sheep has become the most iconic of imagery associated. The process is mundane but is it the mundane that drifts us off to sleep, too bored to now stay awake, or it is in fact the state of being we achieve, a flow state of some kind.
Counting sheep is like going for a walk. The goal in the first is to fall asleep, to reach the mental state of sleep. The other is to reach a destination, a physical state. But what is actually achieved in both cases is the wonder of wandering… and I would imagine everyone has been at points disturbed by other thoughts when trying to reach a state of sleep. In fact, the time between flicking the switch and entering the dream sphere is nothing but a chaotic escapade of ideas, thoughts, and everything else that demands waking attention. If this time can be harnessed, then creative influenced can be produced utilising a set of actions.
It is the space between the spaces in which all the interesting stuff happens. The lambs are a visual representation of this wandering thought and fruitful process, which births exhibitions, essays, and collaborations as the lamb itself is brought into the world.
My goal here is not to fall asleep, it is not to count sheep. My goal is to merely tap of sleeps door, explore the boredom and explore its state, discover what is inside. I do not intend to count sheep; I intend to count lambs. In this case, the product and the outcome are distinct elements.
Every lamb in my space narrates the formulation of ideas for exhibitions, collaborations and projects shown in this publication. The creation of the lambs acted as a therapeutic return to the sensory world, where I believe creativity spawns. My essay on walking, and the flow state, is an extended analysis of this idea – of repetitive, soothing activities nurturing the mind into optimal conditions for lateral thinking, and concept generation.
Counting lambs could also be considered self-soothing – in the way that my work about the sea speaks to finding comfort in the intrinsic, primal affinity to the natural world, counting lambs takes a similar guise in bringing life to something – a baby – that has the very act of thinking and existing creatively etched into its crevices. The lambs, as well as my final degree show set up, exemplifies the overwhelming swirl of internal thought and the fragile handmade lambs that come from it.
Allowing myself the time to give in to the flow state, to spur on my own creative mindset by forming life from clay, gave me both the lambs, and a year full of collaboration, experimental ideas and exhibitions.
