Diego Ramirez dreams of naked immigrants, a half-tiger half-woman succubus, sex with family members, a hotel room in the middle of nothingness and prophetic kissing. He discusses the performance of reality checks in lucid dreams and unpacks symbolism of repression.

Diego Ramirez is an artist, writer and occasional curator interested in terror as a response to the other. He has held solo exhibitions and individual screenings at the Australian Centre for The Moving Image (Melbourne); MARS Gallery (Melbourne); Deslave (Tijuana) and Perth Centre for Photography (Perth). Group shows include Art Central Hong Kong (Hong Kong); Human Resources (Los Angeles); Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles); WRO Media Art Biennale (Wroclaw); Hong-Gah Museum (Taipei); and Careof (Milan). His writing features in A+a: Art and Australia (Melbourne); Runway Journal (Sydney); NECSUS (Amsterdam) and Critical Contemporary Culture Journal (London). He co-edited the booklet *dumb brunette vol.1. Ramirez is represented by MARS Gallery (Melbourne).

Neptune

Diego Ramirez

Sammaneh dreams of a corpse in a Brunswick sharehouse, a swimming pool in a converted cotton mill and the death of a loved one. She discusses bashtak, the Persian sleep paralysis demon, Salvador Dali's paranoic-critical method and 'dream logic', a synthesis of desires and anxieties that informs her creative practice.

Sammaneh ‘Shampoo’ Poursh is a Queer, genderfluid Muslim who arrived in Australia as a refugee after the Iranian Revolution. With a background in contemporary art and education, she has had work featured at Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Sluice Art Fair London, Biennale of Sydney and Pact Theatre (Sydney). She was also shortlisted for the Overland Fair Work Australia Poetry Prize. Shampoo’s work plays with identity, ritual, the Body, diaspora, Middle Eastern and Western histories, and comedy as a way to address trauma. Shampoo is currently producing a stand up comedy show called ‘Like a Persian’ based on her life for the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019, as well as continuing her visual arts and handpoked tattooing practice.

Sammaneh 'Shampoo' Poursh

Madison dreams of a mysterious man dying on a beach in Phillip Island, a symbolic shooting of the self in order to become someone else and running, running, running away from boys. She discusses the lack of resistance that pervades her dream world, and sense of inevitability brought by the dark, repetitive, psychological cinema.

Madison Griffiths is a writer, artist and poet whose work has been published in The Guardian, VICE, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Overland, The Lifted Brow and more. She is also the producer of the Tender podcast, an audio-documentary that explores what happens when women leave abusive relationships. Her work revolves predominantly around issues concerning women, digital medias and resistance.

Madison Griffiths

Lu Lin dreams of a squealing plant-woman, a leopard covered in gel, watching crime on television with friends and a nephew who turns into a custard tart. Lu discusses the maternal and the oceanic; relationships between her dreams and her mother's and a return to oral history.


[CW: there is mention of pedophilia in this episode]

Lu Lin is a researcher, writer, and radio producer living and working on unceded Kulin Nations land. Her work focuses on the poetics and processes of language and relationships. She is currently undertaking a PhD on maternal genealogies and oral transmission, and regularly presents programs for RRR 102.7FM community radio.

Lu Lin

Devana dreams of the deep ocean, a mysterious being,  little fish and theme parks. We discuss the maternal instincts, the symbolism of fish, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby and Gilmore Girls. 

Devana Senanayake is a journalist and radio producer focused on gender, race and labour in the Asia-Pacific region. She has reported for The Washington Post, Inter Press Service, South China Morning Post, VICE, ABC, SBS, Voiceworks, The Lifted Brow, Meanjin and Overland Literary Journal. Find her on: https://www.dsenanayake.com and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dsenanayake16.

Devana Senanayake

Neptune is an audio archive of dreams, hallucinations and visions of artists, writers and thinkers. Produced by Manisha Anjali on the stolen land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. 2019-2020.

The soundtrack to Neptune is ‘The Devil’s Dream’ by Sid Hemphill, from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Courtesy of the Association for Cultural Equity.

Neptune

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