Exploring the Intersection of Art, Dreams, and the Changing Landscape

In a captivating exhibit at the Pablo Center at the Confluence, artist Joe Maurer invites visitors to delve into the realm of the unconscious, blending imagination and reality to explore the profound connections between the land, our dreams, and our evolving relationship with the natural world.

Unlocking the Subconscious: Maurer's "Animal Dreams" Exhibition

Stepping into the Dreamscape

The "Animal Dreams: A Constellation" exhibition by Joe Maurer represents a significant shift in the artist's creative journey. Known for his landscape paintings that capture the rolling hills and pastoral scenes of Wisconsin, Maurer has now turned his gaze inward, using the power of dreams to shed light on the evolving relationship between humanity and the land.Maurer's exploration of Jungian analysis and the unconscious mind has opened up a new avenue of artistic expression. His current work, on display at the Pablo Center, seamlessly blends the tangible and the fantastical, inviting viewers to step into a dreamscape where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur.

Haunting Landscapes and Fantastical Visions

The exhibition features a captivating juxtaposition of Maurer's familiar landscape paintings and his more experimental, large-scale murals. The smaller, impressionistic oil landscapes are adorned with collages of old newspapers and book pages, including Whitman's Leaves of Grass, creating a layered and textured exploration of the natural world.These grounded, realistic scenes are then contrasted with the grandiose, fantastical murals that Maurer has created with the help of artist Jesse Blake Hay. Figures of hares, dinosaurs, and other enigmatic creatures inhabit these surreal compositions, hinting at the profound and often mystical connections between the human and animal realms.

Bringing Dreams to Life

The exhibition's centerpiece is a mesmerizing 10-minute video created by Maurer and Robert Andruszkiewicz. In this dreamlike sequence, the artist's hand-drawn and painted frames come to life, depicting a menagerie of animals both domestic and exotic. An elephant weeps, a cat dreams of hunting, and a coyote encounters a butterfly – all within a largely monochromatic, otherworldly setting.Maurer's use of voice commands on his iPhone to photograph and manipulate his artwork in real-time, often working immediately upon waking, imbues the video with a sense of raw, unfiltered expression. The blending of the conscious and unconscious, the waking and the dreaming, creates a hypnotic experience that invites viewers to ponder the nature of their own subconscious.

Giving Voice to the Land and its Caretakers

In a unique integration of artistic expression and community engagement, the "Animal Dreams" exhibition also features recordings of interviews conducted by Andruszkiewicz with local farmers. These interviews, played during the opening reception, asked the farmers to imagine what the rural landscape might look like in the years to come – 10, 50, or even 100 years from now.This thoughtful addition to the exhibition serves to bridge the gap between Maurer's artistic explorations and the real-world experiences and perspectives of those who are intimately connected to the land. By giving voice to the farmers, the exhibition acknowledges the complex and often conflicting forces that shape the evolving landscape, further enriching the dialogue between the subconscious and the tangible.Ultimately, "Animal Dreams: A Constellation" invites visitors to confront the profound changes and challenges facing the natural world, while also offering a glimpse into the rich inner landscapes of the human mind. Through Maurer's unique blend of realism and fantasy, the exhibition encourages a deeper contemplation of our relationship with the Earth and the power of dreams to guide us towards a more harmonious future.