PITTSBURGH, PA.- In her first solo exhibition in the US, Doreen Chan (b. 1987, Hong Kong) finds in dreams a medium for human connection and a communal language. As the title of her show at the Mattress Factory expresses, for Chan dreams provide another room–“a space that is real for the dreamer, not fake,” in her words, or illusionary–but is instead a tangible, psychological realm that allows for a better understanding of how individual experiences, memories, major life changes, and daily routines, are shared by others. Further, by working through them, a person’s dreams can impact their perception–of relationships or of the past–altering the course of healing or shaping new trajectories.

This ongoing participatory project grew out of a body of work that began as a response to Chan’s vivid, rapid dreaming in the context of the 2019 Hong Kong protests around the government’s draconian Fugitive Offenders bill amendment, limiting the freedom of political dissenters where the artist grew up. Following the stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist’s consideration of dreams morphed into HalfDream. This project explores commonalities at a time of political polarization–how psychological experiences and very real states of instability, displacement, and isolation, recur throughout the unconscious inner worlds of many. Removing her narrative or a particular city as central protagonist in this exhibition, Chan sets into motion a system for gathering and sharing the ephemeral, idiosyncratic dreams of the collective, transforming them into artwork with the participants, and asking visitors to reflect on their own dreams.

During her residency in Pittsburgh, Chan has worked closely with local groups and classrooms to “collect” dreams, as she describes, and identify resonant content. While HalfDream incorporates an online archive of these dreams with anonymous contributions, the artist parses and pairs the individual dreams herself. Bringing this archive together with new sculpture and multi-media work, the resulting exhibition on view situates the viewer decidedly between the physical and immaterial, personal and collective.

In a three-channel video, three of the dreamers revisit, express, and analyze important relationships, from childhood trauma to potential loss of a friendship. Here, Chan assumes the role of facilitator and mixologist, inviting participants to talk through dream content and associations through visceral blends evoking related places, smells, and tastes. Other parts of the show take the form of abstract sculptures and wall-based works fusing dream landscapes held in common by multiple participants. “Is somebody else here? And who are they?” is a suspicion that runs throughout, as the curvature of a seat suggests a missing body, or the sound of footsteps from above reminds us we are not alone.

Taken together, the works presented are embedded with stories of humor and grief, family relationships, and the passage of time. These themes have occupied Chan’s practice previously but here shift into deeply considered collaborations with others. Throughout the exhibition, dreams become a common language to communally make sense of social events, everyday phenomena, or tragedy. And through the subtlest interventions, Chan’s installation refuses to mimic qualities of dreaminess, but instead suggests an evocative laboratory for engaging that which evades, and connects, all of us.

HalfDream: Another Room will be on view through fall 2023. During the run of the exhibition Chan will return to Pittsburgh and invite some dreamers to revisit their submissions and create artworks based on their dreams with her in the gallery. To participate, share your dreams on HalfDream.org.

THE ARTIST
Doreen Chan (Hong Kong, b.1987) has received training in visual communication and photography. She graduated with an MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021. Primarily a lens-based and site-specific artist, Chan’s ongoing work is realized both online and offline. In her current participatory art project, HalfDream, she blends her deep desire of connecting people and the progressive development of her artistic practices with the focus on the investigation of personal perception, materiality, and daily details that are often overlooked. Key elements in Chan’s work include interpersonal relationships, personal memories, and fragmentary moments of daily life in the city. Chan was listed as a finalist in the Art Sanya Huayu Youth Award in 2019, and the 4th VH Award. She was named a Cultured Magazine Young Artist in 2021 and received the Pritzker Fellowship in 2019. doreenchan.com

THE MATTRESS FACTORY
The Mattress Factory, founded in 1977, is a site-specific contemporary art museum with a mission to say “Yes” to artists. Located in Pittsburgh's historic Northside, just minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh, the Mattress Factory hosts artists from around the world and around the corner who live and work at the Museum as they create site-specific installation art that transforms spaces in our two historic row homes, converted mattress warehouse and surrounding neighborhood. In addition to revolving installations created by artists-in-residence, the Mattress Factory also is home to installations by Greer Lankton, James Turrell, Winifred Lutz, Yayoi Kusama and more. For more information, call 412-231-3169 or visit mattress.org.