Katarsis – Group Exhibitions
The relation between psychology and art involves two, or perhaps three, branches of psychological theory. They are study of perceptions, study of emotions, and study of imagination which reflected on the artist’s artworks. That is why to read works of art from psychological perspective it is not started by discussing their basic aesthetic experience, but with two other problems; ‘emotion’ and ‘imagination’. And all the psychological theories explaining about art are just combination of imagination and emotion theory.
In terms of psychology, ‘catharsis’ is one of ways for people to express emotions, or in other words is an extrication of anxiety and resentment within a person, for example by sharing personal problem with another person, writing and –for artist is, making piece of art. The word ‘catharsis’ was popularized by Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist which psychoanalysis theory established by.
Perhaps there is not any theory could explain a clear relation between feeling and object we are looking at. But we often feel when we are looking at a piece of art –which at the end take us to an emotional situation, is always involving some aspects such as contradiction, conflicting feelings and short-circuit imagination. And those explanations are the real effect of an artwork.
By re-reading the artists’ and their works of art through cathartic analysis, this exhibition seeks to identify the artists’ consciousness. It tries to capture any intimate conflicts that are visible in physical form of the artworks and their meaning that ultimately arises as the logical function of artwork imagination
Finally through this exhibition we would like you to feel, whether the hidden emotions of artists expressed on their artworks or weakened by their imagination.
We pay our respects to the Gundungurra people who are the traditional custodians of the land. We acknowledge Elders past, present and emerging for their immense spiritual connection to place which was never ceded.