On the axis between fiction and reality, No More Candies for You raises questions about the human imagination and the psychological mechanisms involved. The work presents two contrasting conditions: aphantasia and hyperphantasia. Aphantasia is a relatively new discovery in the study of cognition: an innate or trauma-induced state, marked by the inability to visually imagine even familiar things that have been seen recently. Hyperphantasia is a situation in which the imagination is rich and alive, and all the senses are working intensely in tandem and at once – which, in extremis, can trigger an inability to distinguish between fiction and reality, provoke psychosis, and cause suffering and pain.

The central character in No More Candies for You is based on the case of MX – the first person diagnosed with aphantasia. In the tension between the two extreme states, he embarks on a psychedelic journey and experiences a cognitive reversal: from a state of complete inability to imagine, to a wild and uninhibited hyper-imagination embodied in the appearance of inflatable air dancer dolls. Drawn into illusions, he becomes a victim of his own imagination. He is engulfed by sound, color, and movement, between a sweeping fantasy and a disturbing and violent hallucination, spiraling out of control and captivated by the sights that he discovers within himself.

This work raises questions about the power of imagination and its effects on the individual’s sense of reality. At the same time, it wonders about its place in art, which is often manifested through the darkest fantasies.

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