Free Association: SIUE’s Response to The Talking Cure

The Talking Cure: 2018 Featured Exhibition in the Gallery at the Kranzberg Arts Center

Opening reception June 1st, 6-9 PM

On display from June 1st, 2018 through July 19th, 2018, FREE ASSOCIATION is an exhibit created by the students at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the MFA and BFA programs. This exhibit is specifically in response to Melissa Stern’s TheTalking Cure which has been on view in the KAC gallery for the past several months. Her exhibition centered on works that suggest a story to the viewer and she invited collaborations with the viewer in a variety of artforms. We have used this model in our exhibit and we are also welcoming responses from the viewers of our exhibit.

The use of free association through words and images allows the mind to spontaneously respond to verbal or visual prompts. This enables the subconscious mind to speak in an active form rather than through dreams. Artists have been intrigued by the dream state since the early 20th century. DaDa lead the way in defiance of the restrictions of the rational mind. This was followed by the Surrealists who were influenced by Sigmund Freud and now imagery from the imagination seemed to have a legitimate voice in the conversation of self-expression. The goal of artists very much became about allowing the subconscious to surface and communicate rather than be suppressed and censored. This desire was shared by writers and play writes as well. Their main theses was that creativity from the unconscious mind is more powerful than that of conscious thought.

Automism, free association and the use of the Exquisite Corpse exercise (both visually and with written words) are all devices used by artists to liberate the artist’s thinking and examinations of their methods. •

• Our viewer are encouraged to freely associate their own meaning to the works and share their interpretations.
• The Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative drawing approach first used by surrealist artists to create incongruous and intuitive drawings.
• Viewers are permitted to add to an oral exquisite corpse by contributing to the tape recorder in the gallery.

The students who contributed to this exhibit are: Samantha Hunerlach, Sarah Bohn, Jessica Lynn Hunt, Joseph Ovalle, Benjimin Carey, Sutton Allen, Katie Donovan, Alassan Sow, Alex Bailey, Annie Darlin, Jessee Rose Crane, Claire Mentzer, Derek Patterson, & Vincent Stemmler