Negotiating Memory- Encountering Catharsis

"The unconscious is inadmissible to consciousness." ―Sigmund Freud.

Performed on Behala Art Fest 2023

The concept for this performance work revolves around negotiating our memories of the past in our unconscious minds and encountering them with art therapy to gain catharsis. According to well-known psychologist Freud, the unconscious is a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of the mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. The concept for this work is to unbound or free oneself from these memories from the unconscious process. It is the conscious mind making it more acceptable and cathartic. The baggage of memories makes us heavily entangled in fears and traumas sometimes, fear of the unknown dark Like a shadow you bring it to the light, it would be nothing effort to bring it to light and help us lighten from the weight of it, and free us to go further.

This performance was in a one-to-one public interactive. Through artistic interactions, the artist facilitated the audiences to encounter their memories creatively and encounter healing. The bed is one essential part of the private zone and door to the inner space, where we travel through the unconscious mind and encounter stages of our unconscious mind in a state of sleep. In that state of deep sleep, our mind confronts deep memories from the past and present, and also we see our future. Often, our unconscious mind fights the devil and fears and directs ways to fight them.

In this work, the idea was to bring indoors to the outdoor space while maintaining and respecting the privacy of the audience. The bed, the Lenin net, and the object of memories will act as tools to bring inside out while maintaining the privacy of the audience's emotions and thoughts. It is like a fantasy door to escape to an inner world. The Installation work is like an alchemical container /vessel in a lab where the process happens. I want my audience and myself to go through the process of transformation in this alchemical vessel simultaneously. In this process, the audience will go through different stages of healing and transformation with the warmth of love/fire in the vessel. 

This state can be very well explained, with this reference to psychotherapy sessions in psychoanalysis - Something similar happens during psychotherapy. For much of the time it is the patient who is speaking while the therapist generally exercises what Freud called "non-judgmental listening". As the sessions continue, the therapist may give prompts, reflect the patient on what has been said, or at times throw out a little suggestion or even advice. In more intense cases, the processes of transference begin in which intense feelings are invoked within the patient. In those cases where projective identification occurs, the therapist may even become directly aware of contents from the patient's mind. But in all these cases the therapist still attempts to bracket his or her feelings, thoughts, and reactions in order not to contaminate the therapeutic process. Nevertheless, several skilled therapists have told me of those magical moments in which all boundaries disappear, moments in which it is not possible to say "where is the Healing"; or who is the patient and who is the therapist. On those occasions, the patient and therapist enter the alchemical vessel together and are warmed by unconditional love. It is in those moments that the miracle of healing takes place. The Jungian therapist Beverly Zabriskie has referred to this as the healing of "frozen accidents" that is, the melting away of those "accidents" from childhood that have remained frozen within one. Therapy and insight may go some way toward the process of thawing, but the last analysis requires the heat of love. This work is durational in a moving cycle cart installation with sound and light.

The performance was performed in two layers first part was where I unbound myself metaphorically using mattresses and pillows. It is one of the most intimate objects where we negotiate memories ( both conscious and unconscious mind). I was carrying three pillows tied to my head, dragging clay teapots on the road, and later unbounding the pillow from cotton that metaphorically represents the memory. I invited the audience to join in my cycle van installation work, I created a private indoor bedroom look-like space with Transparent Cotton Lenin cloth with sparkling lights and an old Bengali song played. The audience connected with the images shared, with popular nostalgic Bengali songs playing the scent of tuberose placed inside the installations where I had one-to-one interaction with audiences. I had some audience emotional bust during the session. I performed cleansing rituals with milk the henna felt much lighter. The performance was on a preview day. During the first two days of the festival, the audience saw the videos of the performance recording, performed again on the last day of the festival, with one-to-one interaction participated by many audiences.

Dimple B Shah 9th February 2023