Sleep Paralysis, 2006 SD single channel projection, colour, sound.
In the installation She Creeps (2006), I recreated my experience of an episode of hypnopompic sleep paralysis, a phenomenon where the body is paralysed in the state between dreaming and wakefulness. Experiences in this state are well documented and often referred to in the same context as astral projection; a condition where the body is once again paralysed whilst the mind remains lucid. Experiences of astral projection often include descriptions of seeing ones own body from above, of being able to travel long distances beyond the body, whilst still sensing the body as present. I experienced hallucinatory images of flies and slowly peeling wallpaper accompanied by a sense of dread. I saw myself from above for a fleeting moment, a terrifying feeling when not prepared. I reimagined the event in the video Sleep Paralysis 2006, by breeding 600 flies from the maggot stage, living with and filming them for the duration of their ten day life cycle. I learned to control and adapt their behavior (fly wrangling) to work on a constructed studio set, refrigerating them to control flight and guiding their actions with sugar water and alcohol which induces a state of insectile inebriation.
The flies were released at the conclusion of filming.