Seven panel tunnel book, cut and glued by hand, containing a magnetically triggered LED light, inside a half clam shell box, with accordion book in its hinged double lid. Calligraphy text and oil painted images on handmade Moinho da Chuva Mill paper, digitally scanned. Book cloth, machine sewn, with hot foil hand-stamped lettering. Lokta paper and recycled acid free paper. 9.44” X 9.84” X 1.3”. Edition of 10 copies.
The Mermaid’s Dream is inspired by Borges’s idea of circular time and duality, man as dream and dreamer. It recreates the mystery and magic I experienced at a beach party in 1974, celebrating Portugal’s revolution. Sometimes an event happens that defies everything we know. Over time we even doubt our memory. But it haunts us.
I painted the girl as I remember her, sleeping by the sea in the silvery night. But then she disappeared – into the waves? Did I dream the girl dreaming she is a mermaid? Or is the mermaid dreaming she is the girl at the beach party who later makes an artist book? Meanwhile, the mermaid vanishes down her own illuminated blue path into another dream.