Last night, I had a dream about mining for lapis lazuli in Minecraft. I guess that’s why I’m just a stupid journalist and not a brilliant artist like Jon Rafman, who is premiering a new project in New York titled Dream Journal. True to its title, the seductively terrifying and bizarre hour-long video depicts Rafman’s dreams with “very primitive animation software,” and it’s all soundtracked by two #OverlordsOfTheSimulation: James Ferraro and Oneohtrix Point Never (a frequent Rafman collaborator).
As Rafman tells ARTnews, “There’s different characters, and they [live in] a dream world. It’s an impossible and long narrative — I don’t think anyone will be able to follow [it] — but there is a story […] It can go in any direction and follow any logic, and it can be really spontaneous and responsive to something that’s happening right now in culture. It’s ambiguous and esoteric. It uses the language of the internet, of 4chan communities, but in a way that’s honest and true to them.”
Dream Journal premieres Friday at Frieze New York, who say Rafman “will transform a booth into a secret movie theater, where visitors can watch — and be watched while watching — a new video series fusing amateur 3D animation and niche genres of computer-generated erotica.”
Rafman has been posting clips of Dream Journal for months on social media. Check his Twitter and Instagram accounts to view them all. I’ve pasted some of my favorites below, which includes children sucking on udders, an Adam Sandler necklace, and gnarly ass-eating — you know, the usual shit. Scroll even further below for a bonus portrait of the three artists, happy in the most contemporary way.
excerpt from Dream Journal pic.twitter.com/07iAkegxcS
— Jon Rafman (@jonrafman) September 1, 2016
12 May 2016 #dreamjournal pic.twitter.com/XG7zd8oVET
— Jon Rafman (@jonrafman) September 6, 2016
26 August 2016 pt. 3 #dreamjournal pic.twitter.com/MZtNc56Vbh
— Jon Rafman (@jonrafman) February 24, 2017
13 June 2016 pt 2 pic.twitter.com/WTGYh58p41
— Jon Rafman (@jonrafman) September 16, 2016
More about: James Ferraro, Jon Rafman, Oneohtrix Point Never
