Watch Mat Collishaw Discuss “Hysteria” at Freud Museum

File this under exhibitions I really wish I could have traveled to see. UK artist, “Secret Victorian” and David Duchovny lookalike Mat Collishaw recently created an installation at the Freud Museum in London titled “Hysteria” that reframed psychoanalytic discourse by way of Freud’s treatment (so to speak) of women. Collishaw and the Freud Museum are definitely an inspired pairing. Although Freud only lived in the London home for about a year or so after fleeing Austria, it now houses all of his relics and collections, left mostly as they were. In this video produced by the Tate, Colishaw tours several rooms in the house while talking about how his own work relates to the “dodgy” psychoanalytic practices that took place there. Hysteria, hypnosis, drugs, death, cigar smoke and naughty little boys (that’s a hint to check out the Duchovny link above – it’s not as random as you think), among other subjects, are discussed in the fascinating tapestry of past and present that Collishaw weaves as he walks through the house. Don’t forget to look for Freud’s super comfy-looking couch, pressed up against a wall in the study – it’s where all the magic happened.

Via Curated.

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Claudine Isé

Claudine Isé has worked in the field of contemporary art as a writer and curator for the past decade, and currently serves as the Editor of the Art21 Blog. Claudine regularly writes for Artforum.com and Chicago magazine, and has also worked as an art critic for the Los Angeles Times. Before moving to Chicago in 2008, she worked at the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH as associate curator of exhibitions, and at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as assistant curator of contemporary art, where she curated a number of Hammer Projects. She has Ph.D. in Film, Literature and Culture from the University of Southern California.

Watch Mat Collishaw Discuss “Hysteria” at Freud Museum

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