A Dream shows Shira Wachsmann's dialogue with a cactus that she brought with her from Italy to her London studio. The artist tells the cactus why and how she wants to experiment with it. She wants to test the cactus' reaction to the sound of an explosion by graphically recording the ultrasonic waves, which are inaudible to human ears. She describes the experiment and at the same time her doubts and fears, or not being able to recognize where the cactus' borders and limits are. Her video shows a graphic approximation of the dialogue between the cactus and the artist until shortly before the explosion. As part of her current research on the perceptual abilities and memory of plants, Shira Wachsmann focuses on the Palestinian Sabra (cactus) and its various "incarnations" throughout different time periods in Israel and Palestine. In Israel the presence of cacti signifies the existence of Palestinian villages before the establishment of the state. Before 1948 Palestinians used them as fences and territorial markers. After 1948, and with the intention of changing their cultural meaning, Israel appropriated the connotation of Sabra and used it to refer to an Israeli-born Jew. In 2005, the meaning changed again, but this time into the "Sabra M60T", a battle tank.

In her work, Shira Wachsmann (Berlin, London) explores the multi-layered notions of "land" as a natural and cultural habitat. She mainly uses organic materials such as earth, metal, coal, straw and plants and deals with their religious, historical and social content. Shira Wachsmann confronts the viewer with philosophical ideas and political ideologies, thereby addressing concepts of home and the construction of identity. In her most recent artistic research, Wachsmann deals with the perceptive capacity and memory of plants.