David Day

Artist Statement

My work explores the emotional residue of dreams-the way they linger, distort, and rearrange meaning. I recreate the visual cadence of dream states, where abrupt transitions and illogical juxtapositions evoke both wonder and unease. By inviting viewers into these fractured narratives, I aim to provoke connections that feel deeply intuitive yet intellectually dissonant echoes of the lucid dream, where clarity and chaos coexist. My images emerge entirely from intentional camera movement, using both single‑exposure and layered constructions to build forms that feel simultaneously organic and invented. The raw materials—leaves, twigs, tissue paper, newsprint, stones, bits of glass, plastic fragments, and other studio detritus—are arranged not as subjects but as catalysts. Under extended exposure, these humble elements shed their identities and become something more volatile: flickers of memory, half‑formed creatures, or architectural apparitions that seem to surface from the subconscious rather than the physical world. I describe this studio‑based approach as Controlled Camera Chaos (C3), a term I introduced in 2022 to distinguish my practice from field‑based ICM work. While rooted in the same foundational movement techniques, C3 expands the vocabulary through deliberate scene construction, sculpted light, and finely tuned motion. This combination produces imagery that resists fixed interpretation and often triggers pareidolic responses—faces, figures, portals, or dream remnants that feel familiar yet unplaceable. In this ambiguity, viewers encounter the same tension that drives my work: the unstable border where memory, perception, and dream logic collide.