Freud’s Mouth at COOPER COLE

Artists: Sascha Braunig, Alex Chaves, Hamishi Farah, Oreka James, Bradley Kronz, Ajay Kurian, Sara Magenheimer, Adrianne Rubenstein

Exhibition title: Freud’s Mouth

Curated by: Ebony L. Haynes

Venue: COOPER COLE, Toronto, Canada

Date: December 18, 2016 – January 14, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and COOPER COLE, Toronto

COOPER COLE is pleased to present a Freud’s Mouth, a group show curated by Ebony L. Haynes.

Sigmund Freud died of oral cancer, heavily affected by his 10-cigar-a-day habit. Well, technically, years of poor medical treatment and dozens of painful oral surgeries lead to his assisted death.

Thought of as a sexist by many, much of his intriguing but unproven theories with little empirical evidence remain a widely revisited and referenced. In his professional career, Freud theorized fives stages of psychosexual development. All stages were pleasure-seeking, driven by psychosexual behavior, and affect personality formation. The first stage being Oral, ages 0-12 months, where the main source of understanding and discovery occurs through the mouth: sucking, eating, tasting, feeling, putting things in your mouth, forming sounds. Freud believed that this stage dictates whether problems with drinking, smoking, nail biting would form, as would psyche of the self.

I’ve long been infatuated with the story of Freud and his mouth and ‘The Mouth’ in general.

Since the age of 4, I’ve suffered Hitchcock-worthy oral trauma – what does that mean about me and my psychosexual being?

I have some theories of my own.

The artists in this show have work that I think is arguably “identity art,” but not your mom’s 1993 identity art. They all make work that, for me, have a sort of break point – an “a ha” moment – and it’s very telling, if you catch it.

– Ebony L. Haynes

Sascha Braunig, Phage, 2016
Oil on wood panel, 10″ X 8″, 25.4cm X 20.32cm

Sascha Braunig, Flop Sweat, 2016
Oil on Arches oil paper, 12.125″ X 9″, 30.8cm X 22.86cm

Sascha Braunig, Study for Bottom Feeder, 2014
Oil on gessoed paper, 11.125″ X 9″, 28.26cm X 22.86cm

Sascha Braunig, Study for Extrovert, 2015
Oil on Arches oil paper, 12.125″ X 8.125″, 30.8cm X 20.64cm

Hamishi Farah, Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on canvas, Edition of 3, 2 AP, 46″ X 34″, 116.84cm X 86.36cm

Alex Chaves, Grace, 2016
Chromogenic print, Unique, 50″ X 40″, 127cm X 101.6cm

Bradley Kronz, The irregulars, 2016
Giclee print and currency on wood, 30″ X 24″, 76.2cm X 60.96cm

Oreka James, Untitled, 2016
Oil on canvas, 60″ X 48″, 152.4cm X 121.92cm

Ajay Kurian, Take it Easy Caliban (part II), 2015
Steel, spray paint, figurine, puzzle box, LED lights, transformer, 10″ X 8″ X 7″, 25.4cm X 20.32cm X 17.78cm

Adrianne Rubenstein, Broccoli Vision, 2016
Oil on canvas, 33″ X 22″, 83.82cm X 55.88cm

Adrianne Rubenstein, Untitled, 2016
Ceramic and gumballs, Dimensions varaible