Everyone dreams — everyone. Whether you remember them or not when woken from your slumber is another story. Dreams transport your mind into the most fantastical of worlds. Local arts collective Dodekapus celebrates the realms of deep sleep in a style that only Dodekapus can achieve: an art show featuring too many mediums to list and a world that only the wildest of dreamers can imagine. It’s a one-night-only event — blink and you’ll miss it.
On Feb. 5, local Atlanta art collective Dodekapus will be unleashing its quixotic interpretation of dreams in “I Can Dream All Day,” a collaborative effort with The Imperial Opa circus, Sam Flax art stores and many others. The show will feature more than 70 performers working in mediums ranging from paintings to poetry to theater.
The show will explore stages of sleep as interpreted by the collective: fantasy, lucid dreaming, the past, present and future, sleep paralysis, nightmares and REM sleep. A show more than nine months in the making, “I Can Dream All Day” will include music, visual art and dramatic performances, among several other acts. With promises of “pillow fights and mysterious potions,” nothing seems to be overlooked in the creation of this tangible dreamscape.
“It’s so hard to say what [‘I Can Dream All Day’] is [and give it] the proper justice it deserves,” said Gillian Morrow, a member of the collective who will be featured in the show. “There’s just too much to it.”
All the performances and pieces featured in the show will be loosely based off of a script created by Cameron Stuart, a member of the collective. Stuart will also be playing the part of a certain Dr. Walter Somnus, a dream researcher who will roughly act as host as he guides guests through the rabbit-hole of sleep.
“We are cramming a month of possibilities into one single night — so many different experiences are going to erupt in a moment and disappear in the next just like the fleeting nature of dreams themselves,” Stuart said.
Alongside the whimsical and surely fantastical features of the sleeping mind, Dodekapus will hold a silent auction on a piece of art created by the young patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.
“We asked them to paint what they dreamed about and the pieces were remarkable — some of them were tear-jerkers,” said Melanie Sachno, a Dodekapus member.
The collective weaved together the individual portraits to create one large piece of art, with all proceeds from the auction going back to the hospital. A few of the patients and their families will even be in attendance at the show.
Sachno, one of the founders of the Dodekapus collective, stressed the importance of community involvement and service, especially in solidifying Atlanta’s growing reputation as an arts-centric city of emerging, young artists.
“Wear your pajamas and come out and see the scene,” Sachno said. “If local artists don’t support other local artists, how can we expect the community to support the arts?”
Dodekapus is a recent creation in the explosive local art scene of Atlanta. Formed in January 2010, the group’s moniker is derived from its emphasis on the various mediums of artistic expression — “dodeca” the Greek word for 12, and “pus,” the latter half of octopus, a creature with 12 tentacles, each representing a different medium that the members of the collective work in.
There are currently 20 to 30 active members of the collective and anyone desiring a creative outlet is welcome to join. Members range from a 7-year-old painter to a 70-something physical performer. Dodekapus’ first show, Conscious Collective, in April 2010 coincided with Castleberry’s Art Stroll and attracted more than 1200 people.
With “I Can Dream All Day,” Dodekapus hopes to capture the same success of the innovative launch show.
“This night will be about having a wild time,” Stuart said. “Just expect the unexpected.”
