Adults asleep, children awake is a response to some ideas that have been lingering around about the fitting together of public or history and private or personal lives, and conscious or portrait and unconscious or pictorial existence of children. It is interesting how children in portraits live as poses, as re-enactment of a history, as characters in a narrative, as statements on style, and as objects of an intent look. It is interesting to create worlds where the children become part of the structural design or building, posed and somewhat distanced, and where it is the structure around them that becomes alive in the way that the view plays out beyond the image. The gazes, expressions, and gestures of the children are incredibly intimate and familiar, yet the observer is always kept at a certain distance, which creates anxiety and tension.
Children tend to be exceptionally honest in the way they approach the world. They are yet to create too much discrimination or become part of the collective conscious which is what some people refer to as “innocence”. At the same time, many qualities in people are inherent such as reaction, gazes, moods and feelings which mean that children have this innate desire and idea to act a certain way and it is not until one becomes an adult that one is able to restrain impulses and control one’s behavior. Children are incredibly wise and observant which is something ideal to capture from which the wisdom and insightfulness they possess that is so indiscreet and pure is incredibly powerful. Imagine the idea of placing the mind of a child in to an adult, a very powerful image, strange and emotive creature that would be. Well, that’s just a wistful thought. Whether children are asleep or awake, fantasy abounds them anytime and everywhere.
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