Ellen De Meutter is fascinated by the readability of signs and how they evoke instant meaning. In Colours of the Dark, De Meutter presents a selection of paintings and drawings that recently arose in her research The Thinking Eye (2017-2018). The new works are at the same time the announcement for her follow-up research project Visual Therapy: Developing a Picture Language to Map the Unconscious.
In The Thinking Eye, De Meutter studied visual components of methods in psychology and then tested them within the concrete space of the painting. She soon came to the conclusion that the potential of the image is insufficiently used in these visual methods in psychology. In various psychoanalytic theories it is stated that the unconscious expresses itself pre-eminently visually and manifests itself preverbally. In Freud's Dream Ideas, however, no image or any illustration can be seen. Other psychoanalytic literature consulted also reflects the importance of the visual - always textually, never with image. As a visual artist, De Meutter's curiosity about this visual potential, towards this missing image, was all the more stimulated. Her research starts from the way in which the verbal is used as a carrier of the unconscious within psychoanalytical therapy. In her recent drawings and paintings, De Meutter explores the possibilities of developing a visual vocabulary in a similar way, structured as a language that appeals to the viewer's unconscious.
PRACTICAL
Opening: 06.12 from 17:00 - 21:00
Open on Friday 07.12 from 12:00 - 18:00 and Saturday 08.12 from 12:00 - 17:00
Wintertuin, Royal Academy
Free entrance