Gallery 229
August 22 – September 2, 2016

Somnium is about a child depicting her psychological journey through a strange dreamscape. This work was inspired by the artist’s own childhood dreams, which were brought about, she believes, by the hazardous chemical plants surrounding her home. The landscape in Somnium is meant to faintly echo her subconscious imagining of what a chemical leak would look and feel like if it were to affect her home. The scenes revealed in the project are a nightmarish version of a childhood home, destroyed and eaten away by chemicals in the air and ground. A photographic process called mordancage is used to alter the scenery in such a way that takes it further away from reality while strengthening the mood of the place. The chemicals involved in the mordancage process, and what they do to a photographic print, relates to the destruction and the corrosion depicted within these images.

Miriam Buckner is a senior in the LSU School of Art, majoring in Studio Art with a focus on photography.