Inspired by the psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan as well as numerous artists whom I met durning the 70ies, eighties and nineties in Cologne, West Cork, London, Melbourne and Brussels, I am attempting a fusion between the word and the thing *, here the work of art. In other words, I am attempting a visual representation of the manner a subject or speaking being sculptures hers or his imaginary body by putting words on it.
There is an enjoyment (jouissance) in the way the subject speaks about his repetitive symptom, that he/she is unable to renounce upon.
Grasping this enjoyment and attempting to find a means to express it in my art work I go out to my studio and transform ‘it’*, this impossibility into a film, a sculpture or an installation.
My current project that I have been working on for three years already is called ‘Demonic Poets’, a research on incarcerated subjects, all murderers, who write poetry. Here, my artistic desire for this fusion between the word and the thing becomes most transparent. As in a dream the poem in its condensed form indicates a relation to the Unconscious. Metaphor and metonymy, replacement and condensation prevail, one term or person in the dream or in the poem is a replacement for someone else, childhood conflicts reveal itself in a disguised, but condensed manner.
How do I transform this impossible enjoyment into a ‘thing’, a work of art:
I take an extracted text for example Trump’s statements on Twitter Hirngespinste, prisoners poems, recounted dream contents…. and extract several signifiers from these which are loaded with meaning. The latter will be deciphered and subsequently represented by an installation aiming at ‘Unity in variety’ by replacing the significations of the words (with) by various material forming parts of a ‘One, a unitary work of art that condenses these meanings. Sound is indispensable in most of my art works as according to Saussure, the signifier is meaning/ Laut.
( Place somewhere else: Brenda- rivaly transmitted by family for half a century , her father anfeuern her to stab Sabrina? Verify- what element replacing this rivaly-being eternally tied to the other by the umbilical cord, the seeds of rival planted into the womb by the hatred of the mother. )
All my art work relates to the visual and auditory representation of this thing or the impossible in terms of repetition caused by the subject’s captivation in the Other’s signifying system. Besides ‘Demonic Poets’, I represent it in my work ‘Hirngespinste’, based on unquestioned mass manipulation.
I unreflected consumption of plastic, destruction of the planet but also very subtle impossibilities between the subject and the Other. In order to develop my artistic knowhow, I worked in numerous galleries for many years beside my work as a clinical practitioner. In addition I completed a formation in sculpture and installation at the Academie des Arts in Brussels, which was formerly liaised with the Academie des Beaux Arts Bruxelles. This year I shall complete my fourth year in video art at the Academie Beeldende en Audiovisuelle Kunsten Anderlecht in Brussels.
° Id the unconscious (Freud) * (das Ding),