Dream Prayer by etta cetera
[the one on the left is dream prayer one the one on right is dream prayer 2]
Medium: rubber stamps on pillowcases
Size: standard pillow case
Artist Statement: Sometimes there are pounds of concrete, miles of concertina wire, hundreds of doors and mountains of time separating you from someone you love. Sometimes dreams are the only meeting space around. I found myself dreaming of a beloved who is incarcerated but our dreamscape was only in prison. That pissed me off. Why even in dreams are we in prison when we theoretically can be wherever we want.
i looked prayer up in the dictionary in the great spirtual quest of 2009. The definition “An ernest request” resonated with me and still does.
Someone once told me that when you see people you know in your dreams you are meeting them in the collective unconscious. I love thinking about that.
I have a quote painted on my bedroom wall that is an aboriginal saying: “During the day the soul clings to its shadow but at night it wanders apart reporting it’s adventures in your dreams.”
I added the wake up part after Elena, who is in prison, told me that “there is always a level of surveillance in my dreams and when i do have a dream that feel free i get so startled and sad that i’m still in prison….”
And so, i made these prayer pillow cases to support freedom in the dreaming. There are currently only 3. 2 for auction and 1 (not finished) for me. The ideas and designs were created during and influenced by the crew who gathered at Crafting Abolition – a weekly virtual drop in space to create and commune – that happened over the winter thru the spring.
Image Description: The following words are rubberstamped on a pillow case along with images of a fern leaf, a skelton key, a moon, a sheep, an anatomical heart, and lacey geometric designs. The words and images stamped in muted pinks, greens and blues and fill up the whole pillowcase which are white
This is a wake up dreaming and fly to freedom prayer.
wake up love
wake up whole
wake up safe
wake up free
wake up me.
The journey is the liberation.
Our shadows dance
our sleeping souls
they do escape
to the only unclaimed territory.
The sky is our key
linking our eyes
when our bodies cannot be
creating constellations.
Touch me when i’m lucid
This is a hold me close in the collective unconscious prayer.
May our connection be home
Dream it into existence