Holliday Dreams - The Cashier
I stand on the old chair, longing for a vacation, ready to step into the rusted tub of my existence. Through the window of my dreams, I s...
Urlaubsträume
Project description:
In this surreal and haunting series, Vacation Dreams, the delicate interplay between reality and dreams is explored through the lives of three women from low-paid jobs – a hairdresser, a cashier and a waitress.
Each scene is set in a dilapidated bathroom where the protagonist stands on a chair that symbolically represents her ascent into fantasy.
They metaphorically prepare to dive into a rusted bathtub, representing their decaying reality, while the window in front of them reveals a dreamlike world – filled with oceans, jellyfish and whales.
These windows are not just openings to the outside, but portals to their inner longings for escape and fulfillment.
Yet even in their dreams, the tension between desire and inaccessibility remains palpable.
The series becomes a visual metaphor for the futility of their aspirations by showing how harsh reality weighs on their dreams – fragile and unattainable like the creatures hovering in the sky outside their window.
Artistic goal:
The goal of Vacation Dreams is to create a dialogue between the harshness of everyday life and the vivid, unattainable beauty of dreams.
The series addresses the emotional exhaustion and quiet desperation of women workers in underappreciated professions whose personal dreams seem as unattainable as the distant clouds they gaze upon.
The images become a metaphor for the tension between fantasy and reality and show how economic restrictions slowly corrode hope – just as rust corrodes the bathtub, symbolizing the decay of possibilities.
Through the recurring visual motifs – the rust, the window and the diving pose – the series invites the viewer to reflect on the fragility of human dreams in the face of social and economic structures.
Using the tools of surrealism and subtle symbolism, the work touches on themes of escapism, resignation and the unshakeable human desire for a better life.
It is a commentary on how, for many people, the pursuit of happiness remains trapped within an inescapable framework of work and unfulfilled dreams.
