Sheep 2020 — Weiwei Leung

Display hours*:
24h/7
May 15 - June 6, 2020

Gallery access hours**:
4 - 7pm each Thursday
or by appointment

Finissage***:
4 - 9.30pm June 6, 2020

Galerie Bauchhund Salonlabor
Schudomastr. 38, 12055 Berlin
+49 (0)30 5682 8931
info@bauchhund.de

* The installation is to be viewed through the gallery’s window. The audience can access audio on smartphones on the spot. Please bring your own headphones for listening.

** Starting from May 16, each day, the previous day’s digital drawing will be printed and hung inside the gallery.

*** All the digital drawings will be shown together, alongside a release of the audio compilation.

Sheep is an installation, an exhibition, and a TV channel. A monitor screen facing the street displays 1 digital drawing a day, accompanied by a voice recording. Each drawing is drawn from a dream. Each recording is of someone telling their dream.

Real dreams dreamt and told by real people, collected throughout the spring of 2020.

A Ship Drives Into a Glass Wall
A dream by Weiwei, recorded on 05.04.2020

“I was sitting in the back row of a Brutalist-style classroom. There was white office lighting and brown wooden floor. All the seats were full. But no lecturer was coming nor anyone was talking. It was in the air that everyone was quietly preparing for something serious. Behind the last row of seats, the entire wall was made of glass, through which you can see the ocean. The sky was white even though it was in the night. I turned around and looked at the sea horizon. There was a giant ship driving towards us, trying to pull away to avoid crashing into the building. I stood up, but couldn’t walk, just seeing the front of the ship getting bigger and bigger, until it drove into the glass at a very slow speed, and eventually stopped right in front of me. Nobody in the classroom looked back. I tried to warn the others to escape. Suddenly a captain-like fisherman entered the classroom through a hole in the floor, where the ship had stopped. He laughed at us and said “What are you people waiting for? Grab your stuff and run!” Everybody started rushing towards the door. I ran to the edge of the glass wall, where there was a low sideboard with drawers. I tried to take as many of my art supplies as possible, but I gave up, and left carrying a plant.”

Dirty Floppy Disk
A dream by Auguste, recorded on 06.04.2020

“I dreamt last week that somehow I got the code of the virus or the treatment for it and it was recorded in this huge floppy disk, which seemed to be a bit dirty with black soil and I realised it was buried somewhere before.”

Trendsport
A dream by DJ ShluchT, recorded on 04.04.2020

“...The trend sport is a crossover of nordic walking and parkour. A little like parkour with sticks and in slow motion.”

Brennholz in the Woods
A dream by Etkin Cekin, recorded on 02.04.2020

“I had a friend of mine. He was in the woods with another friend. They wanted to move to a bungalow of another friend who actually had died from Corona. So they wanted to move in and they had these amazing high-tech clothes on. A pink neon megaman-looking clothes to protect themselves from the virus. He was looking like a robot cop. They didn’t want me in the room because they were saying that I was snoring.”

A cette époque déjà je te cherchai
A dream by Romain Bertheau, recorded on 17.04.2020

“China. 19th century. Qing dynasty. I spend my days wandering from one city to another. After several days of walking I decide to stop in this neighbourhood. People are in restaurants. The smell of burning attracts me. My appetite finally wakes up. I enter in one of the restaurants. The owners, an elderly couple, are in a small room. They too are eating something. I don't understand their language but I guess I have to taste their speciality, probably the speciality of this city, a huge dish under desk. Meat for sure, but black meat, black as oil. This meat reflects a name, the name of my wife. And I understood that all my journeys was just a quest through time. And with time had come an oblivion. I had been searching for years for my missing wife. As soon as I understood that, I found myself in an old train. Still in this province of China... because in this compartment the colors were the same of the city I had passed through. So... sitting in front of me a man reads a newspaper. I don't recognise the written characters, but in the margin, written by hand, I recognise my wife's handwriting. Written in red: A cette époque déjà je te cherchais -  “At that time, already, I was looking for you.””

A Perfect Fried Egg on Stairs
A dream by Kamil, recorded on 22.04.2020

“I have this dream about trying to fry an egg. And the idea was that I'm frying this perfect egg, with yolk in the middle and the white part around. When I fried this egg it was really perfect. I was taking it upstairs to eat... but then the egg fell and it fell right on the stairs. Then I was trying to somehow lift this egg and thinking of what is the best way to lift it. So I took a plate and tried to put it underneath the egg, to gently slide it from the staircase back to the plate. When I was trying to do this, somehow everything became very strange and darkness fell. All these elements I was working with: the egg, plate and the staircase, they separated and were floating in this dark space. I was still somehow trying to put the egg back on the plate but the only thing I could do was to blow air at different elements to bring them back together. So I was working towards putting the egg back on the staircase and then back on the plate, because somehow this made sense in my mind.... Meanwhile, I was thinking that there might be virus on the egg because it was lying on the stairs. but I was thinking if I should take the egg to the sink to wash it or to just eat it from the plate. I thought that if I took it to the sink and washed it, it would get cold, so then I don't have my perfect egg anymore. So I decided in this dream, that I will put it on the plate and I would still eat it, even if it's an egg with the virus...”

Zoo Concert
A dream by Eric Wong, recorded on 20.04.2020

“Last night I dreamed of performing someone else’s work by counting number outdoor with a bunch of people, only to find out we were standing in a zoo and there were animals chasing each other behind us. I mean lions chasing zebras kinda chase, not just animals horsing around.”

The Sound of Falling
A dream by Borys Slowikowski, recorded on 02.04.2020

“There was a dream that Berlin was not only by the sea, which was not strange in this dream. The town was also on a very high mountain, so it was by the sea on the very high mountain and you could go by metro to the peak. I went to the peak and I saw all the city from above, and everywhere you would go, there was a risk of falling. There were a lot of tourists. It was really not safe there... And one of the tourists, she tried to capture a wider image in her big lens camera so she was going backwards and then... she just fell into the very small, like, one meter, hole, that was very very deep, it was like 2000 meters deep and she fell there, this tourist. She was falling and falling and nobody cared for her... like nobody noticed, and I was watching because I was curious what sound she would make... There was this doppler effect, you know, when things are getting away, the pitch decreases, so it was there, so physics were working... and also... what else? There was no sound of the crash... I was waiting for some kind of ccrrrrsssshhhh... but there was nothing like this.”

Swimming with Celebs
A dream by Nina Guo, recorded on 02.04.2020

“I was taking some kind of sound studies exam and I was trying to study for this exam but it was difficult… I decided that I didn't wanna study for it but then I was trying to... and then I had this weird opportunity to cheat but I decided not to… Before that I was getting a flight out of the US and I was worried that I wouldn't make it and right before leaving for my flight I decided to wash my clothes and I was worried that they wouldn't be dry when I was on the plane... The sound studies part that was also kind of in the jungle, where there were slaves, people were enslaved, like being threatened, making jewellery... like an illegal slave factory in the congo... I don’t know. I somehow saw people being shot, being threatened that they're going to be shot... then somehow it skips to a summer festival. Yeah a summer festival that was getting cancelled. And my friend Eddy, who was double bass, he's discussing with the guy who runs the festival whether or not it'll happen, and how to send the music for it. Somehow it's related to this sound studies thing… And we're talking about how to send a really big score. That score is a big discussion... But then the most interesting part of the dream is that I along with a group of people, escaping from something, and so we decide to swim together and, in this part of the dream it really feels like a action movie because everyone that I'm with is a celebrity, like... we are all actors in a movie but it's a real life. And Amy Puller's in it and Rene Zellweger and Reese Whitherspoon and Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, like, it's me and celebrities. And we're swimming out and we're worried about sharks and we're all attached and kind of like snorkelling above what looks like this big green mown underneath the sea. Then suddenly things start shooting at us, from within this sea-grass and we have to swim away really quickly but of course, really unclear and we all start swimming in different directions and... swimming… in this big, expansive sea, and somehow we escape from whatever this threat is, that shooting at us from this sea-grass and it's kind of sharks but it's also not... it's really unclear to me what this threat is... And then, we are back and start organising suitcases onto the shelf. Yeah... and somehow it turns out that Reese Whitherspoon is actually really evil and somehow she's had a baby this whole time in this whole pursuit, swimming scene.”

Boat House
A dream by Auguste, recorded on 06.04.2020

“Me, some friends and Nina were in some house and we were going to sleep, and I think we were going on tour... and we were sleeping in this big bed and I was falling asleep and Nina was lying next to me and she started singing, like, in her dreams... and first I was not paying attention but then she started singing more and more intensively and then I started to wake her up... and she woke up and then I looked through the window and I realised that this house is a boat, like a big ship, and I saw that behind the window, that we're underwater and there are a lot of fish. A lot of very beautiful fish, big crowds... It felt like we were in the ocean, and then we watched this fish and then this boat went again. On the surface of the water there were a lot of dolphins… jumping, and we started to swim very fast. I think because the storm was starting and we saw a lot of dolphins and also maybe some whales or some very big fish and we were maneuvering between them, to swim as fast as possible, probably to avoid something... And then I think it was already next morning and we were in the same house, but it was already not a boat but it was a house, and it was the house of my friend in the middle of Goerlitzer park. She told that she and her boyfriend had to live in this house couple of months ago when there was corona virus but the corona virus was already gone but she was telling me about this time when it was still there... and she told that there was no heating and we couldn't turn it on... and it was very cold in the house. That's it.”

Cleansing Salon
A dream by Weiwei, recorded on 19.04.2020

“I was walking on a sidewalk, looking for someone. On one side of the street were shops, the other side was some green area stretching along a river. I took a narrow staircase lit by warm yellow light on the left. On the first floorI turned right and realised I had entered a cleansing salon by Philips. The light changed into a soft lilac colour. One direction was for women, the other direction was for men. I went in the room for women. It was covered with tiles and equipped with a good variations of big and small porcelain sinks, bath tubs, shower heads and all kinds of stainless steel taps. Many customers were already seating on adjustable chairs in front of their own sinks, and taking their time cleaning faces. I learned that in this place every customer needs to find their own spot and every one must be naked. No one bothered each other and there was no music. Only the calming sound of running water and occasionally the sound of a hair dryer. I tried to find an available spot to join, but the only available one was for showering. I didn’t feel like taking a shower among other people, so I walked around for a bit and then left the salon.”

Badminton Court
A dream by Yiren Zheng, recorded on 22.04.2020

“I was playing badminton with two friends on an indoor court. I was really bad at playing badminton... One of my friends was super good, the other one's ok but way better than me. We're just playing many rounds and I just kept missing all the balls coming my way. I felt quite frustrated... and all of a sudden there was a very fat and fluffy, white-grayish rabbit  just came out from the middle of nowhere, and very slowly running across our court... It has something in his mouth. At first I thought it had our badminton ball, and then I realised the thing he has in his mouth is probably daikon. It's not a carrot.”

Life Jacket
A dream by Constanza, recorded on 26.04.2020

“I was in a big hotel and it feels like I was in a school holiday because I was meeting some people from back in the days of my high school and I think I was in a sort of holidays... but then also I was in a rush 'cause somebody told me that the only way to go back from I don't know where exactly, but the place I should go back... was really hard to reach again and opportunities to reach a bus were few... and so somebody arrived in an anxiety and told me: there's the last bus in 20 minutes, if you want you can buy the ticket now. And then I was: sure, I just needed to pack my backpack. So I just bought the ticket and went back to my room to pack all my stuff. When I get inside the room there were other people and other beds… looking like some dormitories. I started to take all my stuff and suddenly realised that it was so hard to do my backpack in 20 minutes to take that bus... also all the people around me started to talk with me and make a lot of noise and it was a very chaotic situation. Suddenly my anxiety started to grow and I was running all around this room and trying to find and take all the clothes and trying to put them all inside this bag and then realised I had another bag and so on... Suddenly I realised that I lost that bus. So I just took my stuff and went to the hall of this hotel and I met this old friend of mine from my high school and she told me: Hey, here put these on, you need it. And she just gave to me and put on myself this life  jacket, the one you use when you go on a boat trip... It was a special one because there was a picture of a puppet from the Muppets show on it... and was kind of silly and funny so I was like... uh ok. But then, when she put it on me, she also told me: You have to save yourself, you must save yourself. So put it on, it's so important. And then I put it on. I took my stuff and they were still all around and these old backpacks and bags all with my stuff... just mess inside of that all just getting out of the bags. And then I just took another bus and it was also very hard because it was full of people and everybody wanted to go... I don't know where. And then I got on the bus, took my seat. The same friend that gave me this jacket... the life jacket... sat next to me and she looked at me and she told me: Ah ok, so maybe we will arrive somewhere now, and it will be fun again.”

Holding Two Luffas
A dream by Chen Pai’an, recorded on 10.04.2020

“I dreamt of I was standing by a dirt road in a village in Hebei. Many red-brick houses. Near me there stood a man in brown clothes, holding the edge of a massive, round table, while chatting with a woman in pink. He was speaking about something very vulgar. I didn’t want to listen to it, so I walked around. My father was working somewhere on something. I got bored after walking for a while, so I wanted to call a taxi to go back home. I checked on my phone and realised taxi ride will cost one hundred and eighty something. It would be too expensive. So I set off to look for my dad. I walked into some residential blocks and passed through some quiet alleys. Nobody was there. Somehow, my hands were holding two luffas. After crossing an iron gate, I arrived at the river bank. The residential block had some wires fence around it. There was a motorbike-guy was walking on the wire barefoot. It was the same guy who was talking at the beginning. I was amused watching him walking on the wire. However, when I looked down at my hands, one of the luffas was gone. I went back to look for it, and woke up.”

Sex Dream
A dream by Marcin Bozek, recorded on 06.04.2020

“Usually I don't remember my dreams but a few times, over the past three weeks, there was a dream that happened to be a compilation of something very unusual to me, and it happened repeatedly, in slightly different variations. There were two main motifs, first one: sex, and second: escape... sex and escape. It was strange because there were these images of zooming in and out on women's body parts and I'm running away or trying to run towards somewhere... Or I am trying to run away from a meeting or to a meeting. One constant thought I had was to escape, and the other is that it all drives towards sex... but not in a sense of consuption but in this way of moving close and far.”

Pope Cooking Polenta
A dream by Clyton, recorded on 12.04.2020

“I was in this medieval castle, it was like a medieval kitchen... a big kitchen. Everything kind of ancient... and then there was this guy looking like a priest, he was cooking when I arrived. He was in white and it was the Pope, but not this new Pope, it was this other Pope... the Polish Pope, Karol, and he was cooking. He was cooking polenta. And I was there. I didn’t know what to say to him, so I just started a kind of small talk. I just asked if he cooked a white polenta or the yellow polenta. And he just turned and said: “Oh, I actually mix both.” And I was like, oh that's fair enough, I never thought about that.”

Glitchy Mirror
A dream by Weiwei, recorded on 05.04.2020

“I got off a bed in a dark, carpeted room. There was a small window on the side, letting in some pale winter daylight. The bed was a big, old, wooden-frame bed that I remember from childhood. I got off the bed while my mother was still sleeping on it. There was a mirror in landscape-ratio right next to the window. I stood in front of it and thought that this is the first time I dreamt of looking into a mirror. Suddenly the image became horrifyingly realistic. I saw myself growing very long hair. I touched it to see how long they’ve grown. And then I looked at the other side of the room, where was another bigger mirror hanging horizontally, high up on the wall next to the door. I looked at the mirror. It also reflected myself from head to shoulder, but the image was much bigger, which was impossible if it’s reflected from a mirror at such distance. As if it zoomed in and displayed on a monitor. And then I was already standing on the antique carpet near this bigger mirror. A digital glitch flashed on the reflection. I wanted to take exit through the bedroom’s door. At the same moment, I started to float upward uncontrollably. Higher and higher until I reached the ceiling and seeing the entire room. I was frightened. I wanted to get down. I called my mother but I couldn’t make a voice. She was still asleep on the big bed, facing down. Her hair was black and very long, as if she was young again. I was shocked, since she has short hair for many years now in real life.”

I Was About to Fall Asleep
A dream by Auguste, recorded on 15.04.2020

“It's not a dream but it's very close. Yesterday I came back home and I laid in my bed and I was about to fall asleep. Then, suddenly, I heard that some small object in my room fell down and rolled a bit on the floor and stopped. I somehow like to think that I was laying in bed and the room was completely still but there was this time when there was this one object in the room, that was balancing on the edge and having its own little drama till it fell down.... I couldn't find what it was, so maybe it was a dream…”