Old Man Asleep/Awake uses the abstract, second-person thoughts of an ageing man to explore how we categorise and psychologically process success and failure. At first, the work situates itself in the man’s nonsensical subconscious whilst he’s asleep; apparent gibberish caused initially by a lack of distinction between the body and the outside environment (as symbolised by the piece visually echoing a wrinkled face). Then, the over-excitement of the more concrete world of memories takes over, as the man remembers his triumphs over others. When awake, though perhaps not fully conscious of himself, he is alienated by his ageing body to the point that he disassociates and gets lost in a godlike expansion of perspective. This renders him so unanchored that he then reverts to an infantile position for comfort.
