Dictations. As in the relationship between the reciter(s) and the recorder(s). As in the transcription of spoken word, the teaching of language, the instiller of morals. Dictations as constructing and establishing the “Superego”. As a ceremony that impacts social hierarchy and branding.
This work on dictations attempts to perform an anatomical dissection to uncover the layers existing between the ‘Superego’ and the ‘It’ in order to expose the ‘Ego’. Within the context of Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory, the ‘Superego’ constitutes the morals and values in an individual, and interacts with the ‘It’, the world of instincts and impulses.
The research for this work is an exploration in the fields of acquired obsessions, as the result of a dictated suppressive ‘Superego’ in Cypriot society where the influence of religion, nationalism and masculinity are dominant.
Sexuality, as an intimate meeting point of the ‘Superego’ and ‘It’ is uncovered. Distinct elements of BDSM in the context of the dipole of pain and pleasure, invite the viewer into the profound visual and sensational subculture. The gloriously secured anonymity playfully allows for the confrontation of the formalities of behavioral mannerism of the establishment with instinctual lust. The medical element evident in the work derives from the artist’s professional background.
Materials such as silk, marble, metal, leather and silicon are present in an attempt to create a stage for dictations. Silk, elegant and gentle by nature, but still a host of mechanisms of violence at contact between the reciter’s and the recorder’s bodies. Marble, glorious, along with the raw materiality of the leather, become the meeting point between lust and the established “normative”.
The traces and marks left behind from the brutality of the production of the work, compliments the frequently abusive nature of dictations.
Yet the intention is to dissect and not to reconstruct the structures.
