‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep’, wrote William Shakespeare in The Tempest. It was 1611 the first time the play was performed in front of the public. So much changed in the meanwhile, but not that: our bodies are actually made of the same substance of dreams. And the work of the 32 years old Californian artist Sarah Elise Abramson is all about this: creating a window into dreamlike visions of other people’s lives. Through discarded objects, eccentric characters and bodies that speak to us, even if they are silent.
Sarah Elise Abramson describes herself as residing “at the intersection of poetic and unsettling, creepy and beautiful, subversive and classically romantic”. Her work is ethereal, dreamy but at the same time so real. Because it reflects the beauty of imperfection, which is the most powerful kind of beauty. The one that leaves you breathless and confused and whole at the same time.
“Her photographs recall a surrealistic dreamland, and make real life moments out of day dreams and deep-rooted wishes”, says Culture Magazine. At the end of the day, what is realest than dreams?
Real just like her medium of choice: the film and polaroid she uses and love. Because of its intimacy and its tendency to always surprise. And make you think more. Because, as opposed to digital, you have to be much more thoughtful before you go for the take. And so every picture has its fingertrip. Its DNA, just like a body.
Bodies are everywhere in his work, especially female nudes. Isn’t being in the nude the most honest thing ever? It’s scary, beautiful, complicated and extraordinary. Just like a dream. At the end, it is like Shakespeare said: “we are such stuff as dreams are made on”.
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