A baby is dreaming

Image Interpretation

Two figures gaze at one another like characters from a dream that has not quite begun – or perhaps will never end. She, adorned with a lush flower in her hair, and he, with a feathered hat and a daring yet tender look, seem to float in a deep blue that surrounds them like amniotic fluid. Resting between them is a small, embryonic sign – the dreaming baby that gives the work its name.

It is not yet entirely of this world, and yet it is already surrounded by everything that defines the visual language of Ri Meuser von Eschmar: fish glide through the lower half of the image, those timeless symbols that appear again and again in her work as signs of purity, bliss, and immortality in the early Christian sense. The glowing golden-orange fish form a warm contrast to the cool deep blue and speak of security amidst the unknown.

The composition reads like a creation fairy tale: two people at the beginning of a new life, carried by water, symbols, and promise. The combination of figurative narrative and dreamlike condensation reveals the influence of Ri Meuser’s stage design studies – her images are always stages, too, on which stories unfold between reality and fantasy. In the bottom right, one finds her unmistakable signature with the lyre of Apollo, the inner eye, and the three candles of eternal light.