Adam Parker Smith, Sabine Pool Floats, 2020, Resin, steel, fiberglass, urethane, powder-coated steel base, 112 x 39 x 34 inches, 284 x 99 x 86 cm

McEvoy Ranch
5935 Red Hill Rd, Petaluma, CA 94952

In Greek mythology, dreams were occasionally described and deployed through dream personifications called Oneiroi. Oneiroi were beings sent forth, often with an agenda from their creator, to visit the dreamer in an ambiguous state between sleep and consciousness. Adam Parker Smith shares some of the inspiration for this project below:

“In a recent dream, I found myself walking through a dry valley filled with totemic, humanoid statues made from earth and clay. None of these sculptures were my own, nor that of any contemporary artist I’m aware of. They seemed instead like cultural artifacts of perhaps another dimension or something just beyond my reach, an alternate historiography of sculptural practices. Some works were vividly colored while others carried the patina and dusty quality of ruins. The humanoid features were also in varying states of discernibility, some newly rendered, others crumbling and nondescript. None of the statues competed for space or attention, they all just appeared together and each was wonderful. Although I didn’t understand the intentions of their creators, I felt connected to each work with a distant, de ja vu type of familiarity”

Oneiroi is Smith’s reflection on familiar images taking new form in dream-like states. The odd juxtapositions and combinations that occur in our subconscious are accessed here to creatively inform decisions of the conscious mind. The valley of McEvoy Ranch is the setting for a series of sculptures designed before by the artist and seen before by the viewer. There are variations in this installation as to how these works actually exist and interact that is both familiar and askew.

Read more about the exhibition here.