LONDON.- A special exhibition by Turner Prize winning artist Mark Wallinger marks the
Freud Museum Londons 30th anniversary and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud. The artist has created a transformative work for Freuds study and a permanent sculpture to be situated in the Museum garden.
For Self Reflection Wallinger installed a mirror across the entire ceiling of the iconic study offering visitors a dramatic new perspective effectively doubling the space. In the artists words: The relative posture of the sitting analyst and the recumbent analysand are latent in Freuds chair and the couch. We can easily imagine his patients self-reflection.
The sculpture Self takes the form of the most basic expression of what it means to exist as an individual: the letter I, as a free-standing figure. It has been placed in the garden in clear view from Freuds desk. In the context of the Museum the sculpture has obvious intensity of meaning; the formation of the id, ego, and superego is predicated on knowledge of the self and how it is constituted.
These new works, alongside a selection or the artists earlier Self Portraits provide a stimulating and thoughtful encounter with the Museums collections and the work of Freud himself. The exhibition further contributes to the Museums reputation as a vibrant space commissioning contemporary art exhibitions with lasting intellectual value.
Mark Wallinger is one of the UKs leading contemporary artists. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation State Britain. His work Ecce Homo (1999) was the first piece to occupy the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. Later it was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2001 where Wallinger was Britains representative. Most recently, Labyrinth' (2013) a major and permanent commission for Art on the Underground, was created to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground. Wallinger has held solo exhibitions at the Serpentine Galleries, London, England (1995); Museum for Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland (1999); Palais Des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium (1999); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England (2000); Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria (2000); Neu Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany (2004); Museo de Arte Carillo Gill, Mexico City, Mexico (2005); Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2008); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway (2010), Museum de Pont, Tilburg, Netherlands (2011); and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England (2012). His latest solo exhibition, MARK WALLINGER MARK, is currently taking place at Serlachius Museum, Mänttä, Finland and will then travel to The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland and Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland in early 2017. His work is also displayed in the collections of many leading international museums including Tate, London, England; MoMA, New York; and Centre Pompidou Paris, France.
His exhibition, ID at Hauser and Wirth in London this year and his curated H&W stand, A Study in Red and Green at Frieze 2014 drew on his engagement with Freud.