In an upcoming exhibition in Limassol, artist Mostafa Sarabi pays close attention to his dreams and translates them into paintings.

Sarabi’s A Stranger in the Island exhibition opens at the Island Club on Saturday. The Iranian artist, based in Tehran, paints pictures of his dream adventures.

“I wake up from a dream and I don’t remember the dream,” Sarabi says. “Again and forever. Dreams that I do remember, however, remain vivid, in all their fine details, and I carry them with me everywhere. They accompany me to my painting studio. I will share some of those dreams with you along with my paintings.

“In the first dream, I find my bed in the middle of a garden with a zebra grazing next to me. It is so vivid that I feel it’s real. It turns sour when I see that I am sprawled on the bed by myself and I can’t see my wife anywhere.”

In his second dream, Sarabi describes how he is caught in a strange plant, unable to move, the scent of the plant engulfing him, making it difficult to breathe. “There is nevertheless,” he adds, “something pleasurable about the fresh scent and I inhale it deleteriously. In my dream, I find aversion and attraction, and lose both abruptly.”

Alas, his third dream keeps on repeating. “I have seen Roberto Baggio miss the fateful penalty at the 1994 World Cup final as many times as there are blades of grass on the football field. This dream keeps on. And I have to go over the scene with Roberto himself many times.

“My dreams are the world of displaced forms and colours, a world where you can enact visual laws and be your very own self or not be your very own self; either way, it suits me fine. It’s the biggest gift. And more beautiful still is to be a painter and to paint.”

A Stranger in the Island

Solo exhibition by Mostafa Sarabi. April 17-May 22. The Island Club, Limassol. Thursday – Saturday: 12pm–6pm, by appointment. To book a slot, call 25-252010 or email [email protected].