Being in analysis: on the intimate art of transference. (2nd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morra, Joanne
• Is Part Of: Journal of visual art practice. Volume 16:Number 3(2017)
• Page Start: 163
• Page End: 184
• Publication Date: 2017-09-02
• Subjects: Transference -- psychoanalysis -- anxiety -- crying -- Louise Bourgeois -- Andrea Fraser; Aesthetics -- Periodicals; Art -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Art -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 701
• DOI: 10.1080/14702029.2017.1381510
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-9185

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this article, the author considers psychoanalytic transference in the context of contemporary art. The author focuses on the work of artists who have been in psychoanalysis and have put this personal material to use within their creative practice, and argues that these artworks enact the experience of being in analysis. Using an expanded understanding of transference wherein the fantasy and reality experienced in the 'here and now' of the consulting room is transposed onto sites of cultural production, the author considers the very real and often disruptive emotional and psychological affects that are a part of the viewer's experience of these artworks. In considering these artworks we move from the intimate life of the consulting room to an intimately complex psychic, social and political world. Ultimately, the author aims to find a space in which the individual affects (such as anxiety and crying) experienced while fully engaging with an artwork (through transference) can be dissipated or released, as a form of subjective transformation, and ultimately be mobilized as a form of political and collective action.