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.