2. Using selected texts from Artist as Shrink and Voyeur
and/or Artist as Artiste, together with your own additional reading, critically
introduce and analyse either the concepts of the unconscious and dreams or the
concepts of the gaze and voyeurism or the aphorism: ‘sexuality is a
battleground,’ in relation to psychoanalytic theories of visual culture and
contemporary artworks / film.
ESSAY PLAN:
Artist as Shrink.
In relation to my practice I wish to look at how art is a translation
from the internal to external – the unconscious mind to the conscious mind and
into viewable artwork. I will look at Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind
and the components of the psyche. I want to explore the idea of our unconscious
mind harbouring thoughts and desires that on an unconscious level are
translated into art. I shall also argue against the Freudian theory that the
unconscious mind concentrates primarily on sex and that our urges/dreams and
thoughts are centred around the fulfilment of sexual fantasies as I believe
this is reductionist theory and focuses only on the most primitive urges and
not on the evolution of the human mind and other forms of pleasure – aside from
satisfying the sexual libido.
