The Talking Cure

The Talking Cure is a multi-media, interactive art exhibition integrating clay sculpture, contemporary literature, and smartphone technology.

The project title takes its name from Sigmund Freud's original description of psychoanalysis. Seeing and saying, thinking and talking, will cure all your problems! The exhibition consists of ten sculptures, each accompanied by an interactive audio track created by a literary collaborator. The sculptures are fabricated figures combining mixed materials, found objects, deeply drawn surfaces, and an abundance of personality.

I asked 10 writers–poets, novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights to choose a sculpture they most intimately relate to. Each writer recorded the monologue they imagine is taking place in the sculpture's mind. These thoughts are transformed into audio recordings. A QR⃰ tag will accompany each sculpture, and when the viewer points a smartphone at the QR tag, it will trigger the words of the writer.

I have long been fascinated by what goes on in people's minds when they look at art. What stories do they tell themselves? What emotions and memories do they trigger? My work has always been psychological in nature, dealing explicitly with memory, childhood, and family. I am as interested in the viewer's response to my pieces as what motivated my creation of them.

The Talking Cure presents a chance to hear what others think goes on in the minds of my sculptural "people". Viewers can also record their imagined interior monologue for each sculpture. They will be available for playback, serving to draw everyone into my universe and me into theirs. Viewers will be creators as well as receivers of the backstory for each sculpture.

⃰QR Tag: The square barcode seen on products consisting of black modules on a white white background. It is similar to a UPC barcode but holds more data.