Miran Šabić: Field of Dreams
Dreams are an endless wellspring of creative inspiration in all areas of art, captivating due to their unexplored and enigmatic nature. Despite advancements in neuroscience, they remain a realm beyond the rational and measurable, operating outside the physical laws that govern reality. Some theories suggest that the reasons behind specific dreams can be found in reality, such as in memories of past experiences, unmet desires, fears, or the emotions and events of the previous day. According to these theories, dreams are unresolved thoughts that cannot be dismissed easily, instead being carried over and reorganised in a different state of consciousness. These are chaotic thoughts, lacking structure, history, and censorship, forgotten in the daylight, where imagination and memory are tightly intertwined. Imagination colours the scenes that the dreamer will encounter again. As Gaston Bachelard writes in The Poetics of Reverie, “Pure memory can only be recovered in reverie.” Dreams offer us a past that holds no practical value in real life, yet it is suddenly revived, without any apparent reason.
A particularly significant scientific article for Miran Šabić’s artistic research is Self-Organization Theory of Dreaming, which supports the outlined theories and in which David Kahn and J. Allan Hobson argue that the brain self-organises neuronal signals, and their cognitive correlates generate discontinuities and inconsistencies within the unfolding narrative. The understanding of the connection between dreams and memory builds on Šabić’s previous artistic research and series related to mental imagery and memory studies.
Field of Dreams is the title of the artist’s recent series of paintings, created using oil on canvas and oil on board. The relief and tactile qualities in the more recent works are achieved not only through thick layers of paint but also by incorporating raw materials (nature itself) taken from the actual location that inspired the paintings, which are then mixed directly into the paint. Although Šabić is recognised as a graphic artist, he skilfully adapts his personal expression across various media. The paintings feature random objects and visual flashes from the artist’s dreams, placed within the context of an empty space – a field. To understand this newly formed language, to visualise dreams, it is essential to disrupt the usual concepts of everyday language. A shift must occur to fully realise the metaphor. In the world portrayed in the paintings, nothing occurs. Time is halted, and the world remains in a state of post-apocalyptic stillness. Humanity is only confirmed through the presence of objects, scattered in environments to which they do not belong. The central feature of Šabić’s painting is fragmentation. The subject and space are drawn from different contexts into a shared, new one. It is impossible to determine with certainty which scene is truly authentic and which is not.
In Miran Šabić’s paintings, the memorable scenes converse with the deepest desires that animate the human psyche. The unconscious hums incessantly. Though they may appear insignificant, the objects and spaces in the paintings can evoke a torrent of memories of similar experiences in the observer, potentially contributing to the process of self-organisation during dreaming for those visiting the exhibition.
Ana Čukušić
Miran Šabić was born in Brežice, Slovenia. In 2010 he completed his MA studies MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, class of prof. Frano Par and in 2017 he completed his PHD at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, mentorship of prof. Ante Rašić and dr.sc Leonida Kovač. He took part in residential programmes VCCA Residency Virginia in USA, St. Marys College of Maryland in USA, Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium and I-A-M Residency Berlin in Germany. He presented his work in South Corea (Seul), USA (Maryland, Leonardtown, New York), Latvia (Riga), Belgium (Kasterlee, Arendonk), Germany (Stuttgart), Poland (Lublin) and Croatia. Since 2009 he has exhibited in Croatia and abroad. He had over 27 solo and 130 group exhibitions in USA, France, China, South Corea, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Hungary, North Macedonia, Germany etc. He has won several awards. He has been teaching at the Print Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb since 2012 (Assistant), 2018 (Assistant Professor, and since 2023 as an Associate Professor.
