By Claire Michel - MFA Fine Art, Wimbledon College of Arts for Walls in Online Places
The video I created during the lockdown depicts a morbid satire and explores the themes of animal cruelty, human violence and repressed memories.
Octopuses have three hearts and eight mini-brains in each tentacle on top of their actual brain. They also have consciousness.
For that reason, I thought it was interesting to stage a dead octopus during a therapy session, lying on a sofa. The content is dark, passing through the various phases of acceptance, Stockholm Syndrome, guilt, revulsion and eventually liberty.
The narration gives the video a surreal dimension. It also reinforces the tell of a fable. It approximates a state of trauma and calls upon different emotions, such as sadness, anger, and revenge. I want to highlight how psychoanalysis understands psychological traumas.
During the session, the octopus encounters the uncanny, where situations that were long gone and forgotten are triggered by the therapist's analysis
Walls in Online Places is an online exhibition programme for UAL postgrads to share their work whilst in isolation and practicing social distancing.
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