The Oedipus Complex

Tintype

660mm W x 215mm H

2010

“When Photography Meet Sigmund Freud”

In this photography project “When Photography Meet Sigmund Freud”, is a form of transformation of Sigmund Freud’s theory. This exhibition, I present two series tintype photography - “The Oedipus Complex” and “Free Association”.

Sigmund Freud‘s two major works - ‘The Oedipus Complex’ is a sexual desire in a child, especially a male child, for the parent of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by hostility to the parent of the same sex. Since Sigmund Freud saw his parent have sex when he was a child, he created a sexual fantasy to his mum and an idea to murder his father for he scared him to find out his feeling. This leads to a conclusion that childhood experienced always made a huge impact on human behavior. And ‘Free Association’ is the method used in psychoanalytic treatment. In free association subconscious the patient says whatever comes to mind without exercising any selectivity or censorship. The doctor analyzes those various subconscious to study the patient inner feeling.

I believes the present of oneself comes from our previous life, and subconscious always make a huge impact on our growth; similarly, the present photography was development on the former photography. I tried to use my own way to go back to the past photography history and experience the process by myself. This time, I used hundred years ago tintype photography to explore the possibility and transform it into my own way.

<<當攝影遇上弗洛依德>>

我以百多年前傳統的錫版照相法將佛洛伊德的理論創作出名為《戀母情意結》及《自由聯想》系列的作品。佛洛伊德有兩個核心信念﹕一個是《戀母情意結》，佛洛伊德認為我們在孩童時期會對父母產生性幻想，此理論源於他小時候曾窺見父母性愛，因而產生軾父娶母的意念，所以我們當下的行為是從童年的經歷開始的；另一個是《自由聯想》，自由聯想是一個窺探病人潛意識的方法，治療者通過記錄病人在無意識下的說話與意念發掘潛藏的意識，再進行心理分析。我相信，一個人的當下是由往昔的他所交織而成，潛意識往往暗地裡影響著我們日後的成長；同樣地，現時的攝影術都是建基在前人的足跡之下，傳統方式無形地影響著我們日後的創作，只有親身經歷才能發現新的方向。