Artist Statement - Mishka Beckmann
Mishka Beckmann is a Melbourne based artist who works expansively across various mediums from painting, drawing and photography, to sculpture, performance, dance and poetry. Mishka studied Fine Art (Drawing) at the Victorian College of the Arts and is an established practitioner within Melbourne’s cultural landscape, regularly performing and contributing to cultural events such as the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Alongside her art practice, Mishka studies art therapy at the Phoenix Institute, which continually inspires her own practice and feeds her interest in dream based work.
For the In Waking Dream project, Mishka will draw upon a range of activities, such as art therapy techniques to tap into the interconnected spaces of the inner and outer selves. Mishka will use her own methods as well as a variety of experimental approaches to contribute to discourses surrounding dreamscapes and visual language, in order to produce an expansive body of work which seeks to create possibilities of the new.
Mishka has developed a range of art therapy techniques that enhance her artistic dream focused research, including: Active Imagination, Dream Amplification and Gestalt theory to translate and transform the emotional landscape of dreams. These techniques will be integral to her artistic process during the In Waking Dream project. Mishka's art process thrives on symbolism and the inner dream landscape. She poetically describes,
'Welcoming the blooming of the unknown Banksia ilicifolia. Allowing the unfolding of the self, an eternally peeling purple onion.hidden under every skin there is a light, that tears of rain transform to rainbow.Re-creating each gesture is dance and dialogue turn archetypal selves into a tower of ancient chimes, acrobats dressed as red and white dragons, change forms in union, together they Gestalt.'
Mishka amplifies expands then distils dreams.This process is directed by her dreaming sister, her mirror twin. Often Mishka’s dream sister appears to Mishka as her future self, informing her practice. Through the In Waking Dream project Mishka will focus on unpacking loaded symbolic images from her dreams. She will then re-create these images to create dialog with her artistic practice. Fuelling her investigation, is a drive to understand the messages and meanings, lucid in her subconscious mind; seeking to transform disorder or discontented emotions. In Chinese medicine it is said that one dreams when the spirit is disturbed; Mishka’s practice works through listening to this inner voice and understanding the language of the spirit. Through participating in the In Waking Dream project, Mishka will open possibilities for her art to sooth the intangible and irrational, the unknown subconscious disharmonies. She sees this process through visual dream imagery: a women holding, embracing and cradling an unseen wounded and wild tiger.
For the In Waking Dream project, Mishka will draw upon a range of activities, such as art therapy techniques to tap into the interconnected spaces of the inner and outer selves. Mishka will use her own methods as well as a variety of experimental approaches to contribute to discourses surrounding dreamscapes and visual language, in order to produce an expansive body of work which seeks to create possibilities of the new.
Mishka has developed a range of art therapy techniques that enhance her artistic dream focused research, including: Active Imagination, Dream Amplification and Gestalt theory to translate and transform the emotional landscape of dreams. These techniques will be integral to her artistic process during the In Waking Dream project. Mishka's art process thrives on symbolism and the inner dream landscape. She poetically describes,
'Welcoming the blooming of the unknown Banksia ilicifolia. Allowing the unfolding of the self, an eternally peeling purple onion.hidden under every skin there is a light, that tears of rain transform to rainbow.Re-creating each gesture is dance and dialogue turn archetypal selves into a tower of ancient chimes, acrobats dressed as red and white dragons, change forms in union, together they Gestalt.'
Mishka amplifies expands then distils dreams.This process is directed by her dreaming sister, her mirror twin. Often Mishka’s dream sister appears to Mishka as her future self, informing her practice. Through the In Waking Dream project Mishka will focus on unpacking loaded symbolic images from her dreams. She will then re-create these images to create dialog with her artistic practice. Fuelling her investigation, is a drive to understand the messages and meanings, lucid in her subconscious mind; seeking to transform disorder or discontented emotions. In Chinese medicine it is said that one dreams when the spirit is disturbed; Mishka’s practice works through listening to this inner voice and understanding the language of the spirit. Through participating in the In Waking Dream project, Mishka will open possibilities for her art to sooth the intangible and irrational, the unknown subconscious disharmonies. She sees this process through visual dream imagery: a women holding, embracing and cradling an unseen wounded and wild tiger.