Maryam Ashkanian, an Iranian artist, explores the dream world through a series titled Sleep. This series, which began in 2014, offers a captivating interpretation of dreams and their relationship with the human experience, transforming everyday objects into evocative and intimate works of art.
Ashkanian uses pillows as her primary medium, turning them into a kind of metonym for the dream itself. The pillow, a symbol of rest and inner journeys, becomes the “canvas” on which the artist meticulously embroiders the faces of people immersed in sleep. The thread, like a pencil delicately tracing fabric, creates lines that reveal the features of the sleeping figures — peaceful, fragile faces suspended between reality and imagination.
The choice of embroidery is no coincidence. This traditional craft, often associated with an intimate and feminine dimension, becomes a powerful narrative tool. Each thread traced is like a journey through the subconscious, offering the viewer a glimpse into a world that is both deeply personal and universally shared. The result is a body of work that captures the essence of dreaming — an open window into a vast and ineffable universe, inviting the viewer to contemplate the beauty and vulnerability of sleep.
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As the artist herself describes it: «Dreaming is an open window to an immense universe. In dreams, we are observers looking beyond, returning to the real world with exclusive experiences». This philosophy permeates every piece in the series, where the pillow is more than a simple object: it is a bridge between body and mind, between the real and the oneiric.
Maryam Ashkanian thus succeeds in transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, giving the pillow a new artistic and emotional meaning. Her works, delicate yet powerful, remind us that sleep is not just a moment of rest, but a dimension where we can find, recognize, and dream of ourselves once again.
