By Mary Oluonye
Scientists have studied sleep for many, many years and yet so much of what happens when we sleep remains a mystery.
We need sleep. Deprived of it, we will not thrive.
When we sleep, we talk and toss and turn. Our eyes move restlessly beneath shuttered lids. We dream.
And when we dream, where do we go? Where is consciousness? Do we meet friends and lovers for nights of peace, love and good times? Or do we meet strangers and foes and the night world is filled with anxiety and fighting?
Which world is real when the body is in bed in rest mode yet the brain is wide awake and busy?
As night shifts to day, we awaken. Some people arise feeling refreshed, replete and sated, while others awaken to a different reality – one of irritation, hunger and a feeling of wanting more.
Have you ever gotten out of bed and taken a moment to look upon your rumpled bed sheet? Does it appear neat and mostly untouched, almost as if you did not sleep on it at all? Or does it look like you have spent the night loving or fighting?
It’s a mystery. But, take a closer look at your bed. Is there a story there? A clue? Could the answer lay hidden in plain sight, within the folds of the bed sheet?
This is the mystery explored in the latest series of works by acclaimed Ghanaian artist, Kwesi Agyare in his The Mystery of Bed Sheet Series. These looming incredible paintings of bed sheets, in varying hues of white, urge the observer to ponder and wonder.
The bedsheets all look so real.
Provoking and evocative, the paintings entice the observer to move in closer for a fleeting glimpse of the story held within the lingering impressions, folds and fabric of the bed sheets.
This is the power and artistry of the artist, Kwesi Agyare.
