The Simpsons Visit Her in Her Dreams

The renowned video and performance artist Evaldas Jansas embraced this field of art after studying painting at the Vilnius Academy of Art, from which he graduated in 1995. Jansas restored painting to his creative repertoire around 2007.

In his 2009 work entitled The Simpsons Visit Her in Her Dreams we see a provocative scene: a naked, sensually crouching woman in the company of the father and son team Homer and Bart, well-known characters from the "Simpsons" cartoons.

The title of the painting indicates that the Simpsons appear in her dreams, while the woman herself is the only real object in the work. She is appropriately painted in realistic colours, unlike the other two subjects. A glaring green colour is often chosen in cartoons to portray the very opposite of naturalness, and is used to depict danger, toxicity or even radioactivity. The poisonously lifeless green hue seems to indicate that the dreamt up Simpsons are not only unreal, but are irritatingly and maliciously forcing themselves upon the subconscious. The scene depicted in the work is skewed, criminal and perverse, and as such it can be analyzed from the perspective of normal/abnormal and the relationship between father and son. Just what exactly did the artist intend to say with this painting?

Most people have dreamed of television personalities at least once in their lives. This is precisely what Jansas seeks to portray in this painting: the impact on society of globalisation and the mass media. Moreover, the artist's painting is thematically related to his earlier films, such as To Be On Display or 3 in 1. These surrealistic films also speak of the impact of television on our consciousness, our subconsciousness and our dreams. Perhaps for this reason this painting can be understood as the erotic dream of a television viewer?

Like many of Jansas' other works, the concept of transgression (when boundaries are crossed) can be used to describe this painting. The controversial nature, surrealistic combination and grotesque character of the objects portrayed are features common to all of Jansas' works. It often appears as if the artist is intentionally seeking to provoke us by raucously violating established social norms.