Johanne Renbeck

In the autumn, I borrowed a bear skull
and brought it into my studio.
I studied the bear skull.
The bear skull studied me.
I drew the bear skull and
painted the bear skull, and then
the dreams began.
In early November, hibernation time,
dreams filled the nights and followed me
into the day with bear like persistence.
Day after day,
I crafted the dreams into poems,
until I began to feel wired into something
beyond self, until I began to wonder if the
dreams were meant to be shared.

Bears and Dreams, a one hour performance of poems, some in the voice of bear, many in the voice of the dreamer, was born of this experience.

Before the performance, people wander in the Landscapes of Dreams, an installation comprised of twenty two suspended luminaries. A window cut into each luminary offers a view of one of the settings to be encountered later during the performance

Poems from the Bears and Dreams performance and installation are coupled with pencil drawings.

You could say the wind came through like a
spirit bear on a tear, but then you’d have to say
a million bears came through, one after another like
high speed rail cars shooting right past this station
ramming their molecules through shrieking branches,
bending forest trunks beyond belief…

Poems from the bear’s prologue to Bears and Dreams are coupled with paintings.

Sink back
into hibernation,
sink into fat and fur,
feel the giant cage
of ribs sprung loose
to open and settle
with each breath
floating up and
drifting down.