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In this exhibition Lynette Cooney, once again, presents us with glimpses of her dream world. As in mythology, the dream is not restricted by the confines of time and space, and the resulting metaphors and symbols frequently have an intense impact on the rational mind.
One of the most impressive oil paintings in the exhibition, The Dream of the Golden Crystal, is based upon the artist's experience of a "dream with an old monk playing music that washes over huge hands as they move towards the golden light glowing from an old castle. The hands protect a crystal ball and a crown, a gift from the old monk. A girl is protected and shielded by the monk, and she points to a huge flying, orange cat, hovering in the bright daylight in the distance." This winged cat presides over the compact Loading Bay gallery, like a benign Bastet, an ancient Egyptian symbol denoting gentle warmth as one of its attributes, and provides a dramatic contrast to the large sombre solid hippo figure inhabiting a frightening subterranean world, which was so prominent in a previous exhibition of Cooney's.
The unpredictable and sometimes threatening content of dreams emerges in the oil painting, Dream Discovering Person with One Eye. Here a woman searches for a tea cup. When she opens the door of a cupboard , she discovers a Cyclopean woman staring fixedly at her with one large single eye located in the middle of her forehead, while numerous heads tumble down from the upper shelf of the eerie blue-grey interior. This all-seeing eye sees through the pretences and masks of society and everyday conventional existence. The scene depicted could also