ceramics and cake

I dreamed that I was setting up an exhibition, at some kind of art fair. Some of the people I'm sharing my stand with l know; Jack from my old class, and Nahem from long ago. Some I don’t know so much as know of. They are a couple I've come into contact with at fairs before- with a reputation for being surly, secretive and thinking that they’re great....
There's also a younger girl I don't know at all helping.
I'm tired and hot; my head is swimmy (not unlike real life). Two of the pieces I have with me are large torsos, from neck to thighs, and I'm admiring the way that they are made with one large slab slumped into a mould.... in places you can see little details, hip bones, labia, moles, skin texture... one of these pieces is two layers the top layer is grey stoneware, clearly under fired a little. It's like a towel or shirt draped over the larger torso underneath it. The under layer is earthenware, fired quite high; it's gone dark and chocolaty. I’m staring at it wondering how I’ll ever get it hung... where my space is going to be within the stand... I’m looking closely at the details... and I fall asleep

I dream that I'm on a bus heading towards a huge shopping centre; I’m exchanging pleasantries with two random handbag girls who are actually being quite friendly. When we get off the bus (it terminates at the shopping complex) I say something about really needing to pee, and they say something like 'yes, us too, lets go look for the bathroom together'.... this seems reasonable so we all set off. It one of those huge mall places, with different floors and walkways between huge chain stores and we seem to walk for an age, going up and up and trying to follow signs that always seem to end a dead-end, I stop a uniformed employee to ask about the direction that one sign is pointing (towards a blank wall) and when I turn around the two girls are gone. I think I hear muffled giggling from behind some of the racks of clothes but I decide to just continue my search alone. Shortly at the top of a ramp I see what I’m sure will be the lady's. I begin to walk into the corridor and inside I see in the mirror the reflection of a man, I come back a few steps to check the sign is for the female toilets and as it is I am a bit flummoxed... In the end the fact that I need to pee rules my thinking and I enter the room. I'm shocked at how dirty it is, and oddly the cubicles have huge yellow electric doors that swing in an arc when they open and when they close for part of the wall of the cubicle. The green LCD displays on the outside inform me that they are both presently occupied. The only other person waiting is the black man I saw in the mirror. This is all far too weird and I wake up....

I'm lying on the floor of the exhibition stand, near to the foot of someone’s large plinth. I look around and see that Nahem's work is all up on the wall, little figures stood proud of the walls surface on little steel rods, all of different lengths giving the appearance of a kind of undulating wave made up of these little delicately thin ceramic people. Besides these are hung portraits of people’s faces, subtly coloured oils, frighteningly lifelike.
Looking around for my own work I see the large torso I had been examining when I feel asleep laying on the floor, something has happened to it and the upper layer of grey has broken away in two large pieces. Part of me is appalled and freaked out about this disaster, but part of me is fascinated by what I can see of the layer underneath- textured skin where it's puckered around the nipples, the tiny mole on the labia, the delicately incised marks of hairs along my collarbone... I decide that I have to ignore the breakage and concentrate on displaying this piece to its best advantage. Looking around I try to work out where my own area is, I get up and walk around the space which is like an L shaped room now that the cladding is all up. I step around the corner and se Jack's space, his coloured belly and big sploshy coloured paintings, the cladding behind his own space is painting many rainbow shades, merging into one another, dotted and glittered and spangled with delicate decorative designs. I realise that the only empty wall ids the one besides his, it hasn’t been painted white and you can see a design of faces or masks coming through the first undercoat. They're wide eyed leering faces, mocking me. I know that I’m going to need help setting up as time is short and I look around to see who may be available to assist me hanging me work. The younger girl from before is still around and I approach her to ask for help, she seems amenable but is tired from all that she has done that day. I ask her if there’s anything I can do for her? She turns and points to where a catering stand has been set up whilst I was sleeping, under the glass are some enticing looking cream cakes and patisserie. I agree that this would be more than a fair trade and we start to queue up, we're talking about whether we should get two different types and half them so we can try more, and somehow we choose the most attractive looking gooey creations, we pay the woman at the till and begin to come away with our goodies on white paper plates.....

and I wake up.