Relative Relations
This book Relative Relations was made during my artist's residency
at the Freud Museum in 2006 and is the result of an exhibition,
which was a tribute to Freud on the 150th celebration of his birth.
In Relative Relations I pair my created works with Freud's collected works.
Sigmund Freud collected over 2000 objects of antiquity. These were Egyptian,
Classical and Eastern sculptures. Freud collected sculpture.
During my residency
at the museum I made a series of drawings of those sculptures. They can
be seen on this website under 2D drawings.
I found remarkable
similarities between works I had previously made and the objects Freud
had chosen to collect. He collected medals, reliefs and busts, figures
and fragments, all of which appear in my past body of work. Any intent
to follow in Freud's footsteps 'in matters of preference' was certainly
not a conscious one. Whether unconscious or programmed it remains - a
twinned collection.
In Relative
Relations I show photographs of these pairings. This is a posthumous collaboration
on the part of Sigmund Freud and I only hope he likes it and is in agreement!
Otherwise, as a self proclaimed atheist he is blissfully unaware.
Information
'Relative Relations' was nominated for the AXA art exhibition catalogue
of the year.
This art book
documents the corresponding exhibition in triptych, symbolically shown
in three venues. At the Muzeum Novojicinska in Pribor, Czech Republic
(Sigmund Freud's first home); at his last home, now the Freud Museum in
Hampstead and also at the Harrow Museum local to my current home.
It is strange
to think that Freud, the famous Viennese analyst was Czech. With the borders
having changed, what was Austro-Hungary (with Vienna as its capital) has
since become the Czech Republic. Freud's birth place which was at the
time in Austria is now located in the Czech Republic, rarely acknowledged
in writing but recognised conceptually through my exhibition and its documentation.
Relative Relations
features 36 pages of colour photographs. The texts include a preface by
Michael Molnar - Director of The Freud Museum, an introductory essay by
Henry Kim - Curator at the Ashmolean Museum and a closing essay by Rune
Frederiksen - Classical Archaeologist and Research Fellow at Worcester
College, Oxford, It also contains my interview conducted by Stephen Feeke
- Curator at the Henry Moore Institute.
This art book
tells a story. 'Chapter one: The Door Opens' leads onto 'Chapter two:
Behind the Curtains'. As in a novel these suggestive titles go on to unravel
the 'plot'. My story is revealed through the paralleled images of my works
displayed alongside Freud's antiquities. Illustrated new works are also
explained through the narrative which is further played out in the interview.
The pairings explore the link between influence and coincidence, narration
and relation. I examine those links through our common interest - sculpture
Relative Relations
shows ancient and modern objects displayed side by side, setting up subtle
resonances which become further evident in the film "Dead or Alive", a preview of which can be seen on this website under 4D time based
Film
The film shows the pairings morphing into each other. This merging back
and forth of Freud's antiquities to my sculptures, from past to present
virtually closes the gap of time. Great similarities can be found in the
forms and motifs of the pairs At a midway point the two objects merge
together and form a third image of a "virtual" object, different
from both, that does not exist but is a combination of the two. For me
this is the unknown:- but what I really like is that the third object
is in many cases an aesthetic improvement on both the individual objects.
The film is accompanied by the background music of Kathleen Ferrier. The
classical music sung by Kathleen Ferrier is from three tracks. One of
the tracks is "I Will Lay Me Down in Peace" by Maurice Green.
I chose this music as Kathleen Ferrier was a contemporary of Freud and
they are neighbours in death at the Golders Green Crematorium in London.
(I like the idea of Freud analyzing Ferrier while she sings to him, therefore
entertaining each other in the long expanse).
You will notice that there are two breaks in the music. One is to symbolize
the tragedy that the singer, seriously ill with bone cancer, suffered.
She got through the opening night of Orfeo successfully, but at the second
performance a bone in her leg broke while she was on stage. This was her
final performance.
The other break in the music is to symbolize the break in Sigmund Freud's
only BBC broadcast. A bomb fell and he was rushed off unable to finish.
The title "
Dead or Alive" references one of the images
shown in the book under the chapter of the same name. This image shows
a photo of the famous couch merged with my drawing of Freud smoking a
cigar. There are many ideas here. One of the ideas is about Freudian theory
and whether it is still relevant in psychoanalysis. The other idea
behind the image is that Freud is perhaps more alive in death (as an icon)
than he was in life where being looked was not his favourite occupation.
Ironically, everyone would now recognise Freud's image as it is so frequently
seen. The final idea
behind putting Freud on his own couch is to show that he was not his own
best therapist as he is continuing to smoke which was the cause of his
ill health, much pain and eventual death. He fought this addiction for
much of his adult life yet with all his knowledge of the mind and how
it works he could not apply it to himself suggesting that one cannot administer
ones own therapy.
I believe that
culturally we need what Freud gave us, (psychoanalysis) as much now as
we ever did and that its genuine use in politics and diplomacy between
nations might help peoples and nations to get on with each other.
Relative Relations is a Limited Edition hardback of 300. Any edition after
this, should I be so lucky, would be in paperback.
300 is a very small edition for a book and rarity is economically always
a good thing.
© Jane McAdam Freud
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