Cyan, Magenta, and Insomnia

He knows he will be hurt.

The warnings come to him in bed

because repose threatens him: in the camouflaging

light of the nightlight, he pretends to guard

the flesh in which his life is summarized.

He spreads his arms. On the wall, a corresponding figure

links him to the darkness he cannot control.

In its forms, the beasts originate

who are his enemies. He cannot sleep

apart from them

— Louise Glück

In the liminal state between wakefulness and sleep, known as hypnagogia, vivid imagery and fleeting shapes often emerge, blending the conscious with the subconscious. I sunk on my bed, as inner turmoil and a shadow of despair plunged me into countless nights of insomnia, empowering hypnagogia. In this series, Cyan, Magenta, and Insomnia, photographs captured by microscopy were post-processed to simulate the nightmares and hallucinations that arise from my insomnia period. Expressive colors, particularly cyan and magenta, had constantly appeared in the form of circles with varying sizes and compositions. They were the reminiscence of the micro-scale matters in natural science research I encountered on a daily basis, yet distorted by dread and anxiety. Visualization of these images eventually became a lullaby.

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