‘What Were You Dreaming When You Were Killed?’ Explores Denae Howard’s Liberatory Dream World

If reality is a nightmare, dreams are liberation.

Community and Civic Engagement Artist Denae Howard contemplates that subject in her eight-piece gallery “What Were You Dreaming When You Were Killed?” on display at the Ralph Arnold Arts Annex from Oct. 17 to Nov. 16. Howard hosted a walkthrough of the gallery Oct. 22, giving viewers more insight into her work. 

Through Howard’s mystical, mixed-media style, she utilizes bold colors and powerful images to bring her audience into her liberatory dream world.

Howard, also known as X Bunny, artschoolscammer and other aliases, focuses her art on community and civic engagement, according to her artist statement. 

During the walkthrough, Howard said the works all came from times where she allowed herself to rest, dream and practice mindfulness. Howard said she kept dream notebooks and went on hikes and in these times of rest began to question what victims of police brutality, like Breonna Taylor and Fred Hampton, were dreaming when they experienced violence in the safety of rest. 

Howard’s work highlights the basic human need for rest and how police violence has stolen the safe haven of rest away from Black people.

“As a community civic engager, I wondered about their rest,” Howard said. “Was Ms. Taylor able to sleep deeply enough that when she died she simply stepped further into an alternate reality where she could experience liberation?”

In the gallery, four sheets of metallic, silver mylar sheets hang from the ceiling in the center of the room, swaying as people walk past the pieces. The painted sheets hang every other way, creating the meditative effect of a labyrinth as viewers walk through, taking them out of reality’s nightmare. 

When the sun shines through the annex windows, the mylar paintings become slightly transparent and viewers can see where Howard put the most pressure on the material. 

“I am proud of the ways the works speak to each other — the materiality of the works and the flow in conversation,” Howard said. 

In the corner, two Victorian chairs upholstered in maroon and turquoise fabric invite the audience into the comfortable space. Howard’s piece “God Saves Part 2” hangs above the table and chairs.  

Howard said she uses collages as the base for her works, and then paints around them. In the background of “God Saves Part 2,” Howard used images of authoritative brutality from Brooklyn, Gaza and Paris, and scribbled over the law enforcement to highlight the victims. 

“My intention and focus in creating art has been to transform the meaning of negative stereotypes of Blackness and Black culture to my viewer,” Howard said.

Based in Brooklyn, Howard brings showing and selling opportunities to local artists through her website DayOnesArt, teaches art to Brooklyn children and offers the Black Utopian Fellowship for aspiring Black artists, scientists, researchers and inventors.

“I feel ‘What Were You Dreaming Before You Were Killed?’ speaks to the nuances specific to the dangers of marginalized bodies,” Howard said. “When Black people experience violence — especially in times of rest — that behavior is an extension of racial tropes that demonize Black human existence.”

Jessica Lanay curated the show as one of two she’ll present as Loyola’s Artist and Scholar in Residence for the 2024-25 school year. Lanay said she wanted to display Howard’s work because of her ability to communicate with viewers in unconventional ways. 

“I have been aware of Howard’s work for a long time, and I have always had a lot of respect for their experimental freedom with materials and imagery,” Lanay said. “There is a fearlessness and a tongue-in-cheek commentary in the work that I have seen speak to audiences.”

During the walkthrough, many viewers engaged with and asked about Howard’s piece “Breaking Realities.” The mixed media painting on mylar features Howard’s thumb trying to break through an image of a yellow flower on her phone screen. Howard said the inspiration came from trying to be present in nature, but failing because of her phone’s allure. 

Howard said she hopes the exhibition urges viewers to bear witness to the conversation of the violence Black people experience due to police brutality, and how dreams can be a space for liberation.

“I would like them to consider the question of their waking realities, dreams and nightmares,” Howard said. 

Howard’s work is based in collaboration and community, yet Lanay wanted to give Howard a place to present her work on its own standing. Lanay said the pieces in “What Were You Dreaming When You Were Killed?” blend beauty with social commentary and encourages viewers to contemplate the social structures around them. 

“I want to support this iteration of their artistic thought process and share it with the Loyola and local communities — to bring something to the environment that acknowledges the moment we are living in while providing a productive line of imagination and questioning,” Lanay said.

Loyola students can view “What Were You Dreaming When You Were Killed?” at the Ralph Arnold Arts Annex Gallery until Nov. 16.