Sigmund Freud Says What
revealing new exhibition at the Nicholson Museum
A selection of exquisite personal antiquities belonging to the eminent and controversial founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, will be on display at the University of Sydney’s Nicholson Museum from the beginning of 2008.
Sigmund Freud’s Collection: An Archaeology of the Mind opens on 3 January, 2008, and gives an intimate insight into Freud’s passions and influences as well as his obsession with antiquities.
Freud’s Sphinx, a Greek antiquity from the fourth or firth century BC.
According to Michael Turner, senior curator of the Nicholson Museum, Freud was one of the biggest private collectors of the 20th century. “He was obsessive,” says Turner of the psychoanalyst who fled Austria, with his collection of remarkable antiquities, prior to World War II. “More than 2,000 Egyptian, Greek, Italian, near Eastern and Chinese antiquities crowded into his Viennese study and consulting room, many of them sitting on his desk.”
Freud once described the pieces in his collection as his “old and grubby gods” and often travelled on holidays with selected pieces. The majority of Freud’s collection is now housed in the Freud Museum in London, once Freud’s family home.
Sigmund Freud’s Collection: An Archaeology of the Mind features 19 of the more significant objects from Freud’s collection. These include his favourite Athena bronze statuette from the first or second century AD, sphinxes, and an Eros statue (c. 300-250 BC) that celebrates the god of love and desire. Intimate portraits of Freud at work as well as personal home movies taken by Freud’s daughter, Anna, will also be on display.
According to Turner, Freud’s antiquities have much to say about Freud, the man. “Freud is one of the great men of our time, a true genius,” says Turner. “Many people have felt intimidated by his theories – the Oedipus complex and penis envy for example. This exhibition looks to place these theories in context, and in so doing, to understand him.”
Using historical photos of Freud’s study and consulting room, the exhibition recreates Freud’s desk and consulting couch. Carefully selected artefacts have been placed as they were in Freud’s office and visitors will be able to sit at Freud’s replica desk to experience the same view the psychoanalyst once had. The selected pieces, adds Turner, “illustrate the kinds of thoughts he was developing while sitting at his desk.”
Sigmund Freud’s Collection: An Archaeology of the Mind is curated by Janine Burke, author of The Gods of Freud: Sigmund Freud’s Art Collection (Random House, 2006) and is presented in association with Monash University Museum of Art. It is the first time pieces from the Freud Museum London have travelled to Australia.
The exhibition closes on 31 March, 2008, and admission is free.
The Nicholson Museum will hold a series of events in association with Sigmund Freud’s Collection: An Archaeology of the Mind. Updates will be listed on our webiste as details are confirmed. The Nicholson Museum can be found at the southern entrance of the Quadrangle at the University of Sydney. It is open from 10am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, and noon to 4pm on Sundays.
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From 29 November – 15 December 2007 Chalk Horse Gallery in Surry Hills will be exhibiting paintings by Stephanie Smiedt, photographs by Alex Davies and an installation performance by Renny Kodgers.
Opening night, Thursday the 29th of November, Renny Kodgers will be performing "The Heat is...On!" Come at 6pm to see Renny exchange his most intimate bodily fluids in one of the most generous artistic displays in the history of Australian performance. This is an opportunity for any person, animal or thing to connect with Renny on a corporeal level previously unheard of.
In the upstairs gallery Alex Davies will be exhibiting a selection of over 100 social documentary/street photographs from Sydney and abroad.
Exhibition opening from 6 to 8pm next Thursday the 29th. Hope to see you there!
56 Cooper St.
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
(02) 9699 8999
www.chalkhorse.com.au
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SISA: re-use, collaborations and
cultural activism from Indonesia
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Friday 30 November 2007
ARTIST TALKS
3.30pm - 4.30pm
Venue: UTS Gallery
Join visiting artists Sindhu Prasatyo (Ayok) and Jon Priadi as they present illustrated discussions about their practice.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
4.30pm - 5.30pm
Venue: UTS Gallery
Facilitated discussion with the exhibition curator Alexandra Crosby, artists, and invited guests: Suzan Piper (Chair), Research Associate, Transforming Cultures Research Centre, UTS. Adrian Vickers, Professor of South East Asian Studies, University of Sydney. Sue Ingham, PhD candidate, COFA, UNSW.
Venue: UTS Gallery foyer
FILM SCREENING
6.00pm - 6.50pm
Venue: Level 3 Lecture Theatre room 6322, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, UTS
Screening of the film GANG Ways: An artist run initiative
SYDNEY INDONESIAN STUDY CIRCLE (SISC)
7.00pm - 8.00pm
Venue: Level 3 Lecture Theatre room 6322, Faculty of
Design, Architecture & Building, UTS
Presentation by exhibition curator Alexandra Crosby.
For speaker biographies please visit the UTS Gallery
website: www.utsgallery.uts.edu.au/gallery/upcoming
All events are FREE - no bookings required
Part of GANG Festival 07/08
Presented as a UTS Gallery-Transforming Cultures
Partnership. Supported by INSEARCH UTS.
EXHIBITION
Sisa: re-use, collaboration & cultural activism from
Indonesia.
6 November - 7 December 2007.
UTS GALLERY
Level 4, 702 Harris Street Ultimo
Mon-Fri 12-6pm | 02 9514 1652
www.utsgallery.uts.edu.au
100 artists exhibiting 100 artworks
in 5 hours on 1 plinth
At The Vanishing Point – Contemporary Art directors Brendan Penzer and Renee Briggs are undertaking an ambitious and exciting art project titled Sculpturthon and they need 99 artists to join the at;
Art in the Park
Sunday 9th December
11.00am-4.00pm
Maundrell Park
Stanmore Road Petersham
Sculpturthon is an installation event. Part endurance, part performance and expressly collaborative and communal in nature, this work will see 100 sculptures/installations exhibited by 100 artists/community members being exhibited on a plinth in the 5 hours that will be Sculpture in the Park December 2007. Somewhat of an unofficial world record attempt.
Brendan will start off proceedings with a sculpture at 11.00am and then every 3 minutes after a new sculpture will arrive and replace the exhibited piece. At the close of the exhibition 100 sculptures will be exhibited on the one plinth and 100 artists will have been shown in Art in the Park December ’07 on the allotted plinth.
A grass space will be set-up adjacent to the plinth as a picnic-come-artist-studio area, where artists and audience members can build small-scale sculptures and installations to be exhibited on the plinth using recycled materials, simple tools and stationery. These sculptures/installations will subsequently be registered for Sculpturthon and put on exhibition for three minutes.
Artists and community members can either bring a pre-made sculpture/installation or make one on the day. (Participants must register if they intend to bring a work on the day so that they can be allocated an arrival and exhibiting time period).
Each artist and their work will be photographed on the day and the process filmed. The documentation gathered will form the basis for an exhibition catalogue to be produced retrospectively and the end results will be exhibited in 2008 at At The Vanishing Point - Contemporary Art and on its website. Each participant will be presented with an artist fee by way of a $1 cheque (100 equal dividends of the artist-fee from Marrickville Council who are funding Art in the Park) and this ceremony will also be recorded and documented.
Artworks must be able to be exhibited on a plinth top that measures 60x60cm.
For registration details or further information contact Brendan and Renee at ATVP on (02) 9519 2340 or email atthevanishingpoint@hotmail.com or visit www.atthevanishingpoint.com
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Labels: press releases
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 11:55 am.
