UNSCREAMED SCREAMS
Present Pattern of Past Nightmares
As a child, I had a recurrent nightmare in which the personification of evil appeared in form of ‘The Thief’. All these dreams followed the same pattern: I am in a crowd, happy and carefree, but suddenly I know ‘The Thief’ is there. I know he (it is always a man) is coming for me. I try to run, but can hardly move. I want to scream, but no sound comes. He gets closer and closer, and when he is about to catch me, I wake up.
For years, I had these dreams, in which I could neither run nor scream. So here, on a pillowcase from my childhood, I have embroidered that scream that would never come out of my mouth in those nightmares: HILFE! (HELP!) The cries for help form a pattern of unscreamed screams, just as the nightmares always followed a fixed pattern.
(Embroidered cotton on one of my childhood pillowcases, 30 x 30 cm, 2025)
