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The Test of Sleep

Courtesy: Marian Ivan Gallery, Bukarest
Courtesy: Marian Ivan Gallery, Bukarest
Courtesy: Marian Ivan Gallery, Bukarest
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    • The Test of Sleep
    • Testul somnului
  • 1988
  • 8 b&w vintage prints, mounted on cardboard
  • 70 × 50 cm
“The Test of Sleep” is an artistic statement concerning the final years of communism in Romania, during which Perjovschi felt as if she were in a state of amnesia or coma. This performance in her Oradea apartment was meant to express grief, pain, and discontent with the social order. White serves as the dominant color of the background, while the artist’s body represents sheets of paper on which symbols are written. These invented, indecipherable symbols were intended by Perjovschi to function as visual poetry, and they are related to those with which she decorated the envelopes of her mail art projects. With this performance, the artist drew parallels to the Epic of Gilgamesh—in which Gilgamesh lost his best friend because he fell asleep. This is one of the oldest stories from ancient Babylon and, like Perjovschi’s performance, represents a quest for meaning and purpose. W.S.