Nicolas Bruno
Nicolas Bruno weaves together his terrifying experiences of Sleep Paralysis with surreal self-portraiture in a therapeutic translation of night terror to image. His constructed worlds of uncertainty exist on a plane between waking and sleeping, where he is tormented by a physical embrace of the subconscious and its perils. Bruno utilizes the mediums of sculpture and costume design to create the various elements that appear within his images. Influences of 19th-century Romanticists, historical texts, occultism, and dream symbolism lace each composition with various visual dialogues of the macabre.
Bruno’s latest series, The Somnia Tarot, contains 78 images and tells the tale of the classic Tarot through the mediums of photography, sculpture, costume design, and dream journal recordings. Various characters and symbolism from Sleep Paralysis are woven together to express the diverse themes that appear within the Tarot. The concept of The Somnia Tarot began during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the project was completed in late November 2020. After a successful independent crowdfunding campaign, The Somnia Tarot is now used worldwide by tarot readers who wish to dive into their own dreams and nightmares.
