HYPNAGOGIC NOTEBOOKS · 2001 / 2006

Mapi Rivera

The drawings, sketches, poems, and writings in these notebooks are the seedbed of my photographic and videographic projects. On my bedside table, I always have a notebook close at hand, in case in moments of meditation, while reading, before falling asleep, or upon waking up, some inspired image or idea comes upon me.

These hypnagogic states, between sleep and wakefulness, are moments of perceptual relaxation, which paradoxically awaken the inner vision, and cause awe, the dilation of the heart, body and gaze. I have the need to transcribe the images or the words that I perceive, because they have an intensity and a vividness that surpass me. They are accompanied by the certainty of having seen, of having known, even for a few moments, what our essence is, our true nature of Light and Love.

With a trembling hand, when the vision calms down, I draw and transcribe those moments of great beauty, I record them to fix them not only in the notebook but in myself, to prevent them from passing without leaving a trace, so that when I look at them again I can evoke the experience that inspired them.