Re: Hoo ha over artistic or autistic article - long

[Guest guest]

Hi,

A couple of you have mailed to say you couldn't find the article.

I've posted it below.

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Psychoanalyst Coline Covington detects symptoms of autism among the

Frieze artworks.

Entering the huge Frieze Art Fair pavilion in Regent's Park, you hear

the sound of trickling water, an installation by Pavel Bucher. This

is the first clue that nature and the environment are going to

feature as a noticeable theme this year. But what is surprising is

the particular way in which the environment is perceived and

portrayed.

There are numerous examples of actual environments that have been re-

assembled into art installations. The most striking is the Icelandic

exhibit of an art bar, Sirkus, taken lock, stock and barrel from

Reykjavik by the gallery Kling and Bang and reassembled next to the

Caprice food concession.

Sirkus is a bar run by artists that opened in 1987 and recently

closed. The structure and its contents, including barman and

performance artists, have been faithfully re-created and there is a

long queue of fair-goers waiting to go in. The gallery claims that it

has managed to create the environment of the original bar but in a

different context. Nevertheless, this bar is for sale at £350,000,

not including transport or VAT.

There are other examples of environments that have been

similarly 'airlifted' into the fair: a rubbish dump from the Appetite

Gallery in Buenos Aires, with the artists rummaging through the

garbage; a man in a suit - from the Fair Gallery - standing with a

sign board hung around his chest saying, 'Help me to Find a Wife'.

While these installations have a humorous side, they came across like

a pack of tourist postcards, simply replicating different

environments and experiences. Rather than invite you into a world of

fantasy and feeling, they distance the viewer from experiencing the

actual threat our environment is under. So much so, that after

several turns around Frieze I began to feel I was surrounded by

autistic objects in an autistic world.

In child development, autism is a normal state of mind in infancy in

which pleasure is sought through bodily sensations, and objects in

the external environment are used for this purpose and are not

perceived as having a life of their own. It is a state of omnipotence

over the environment that obliterates separation and relationship.

Autism becomes abnormal when an infant needs to defend himself

against being left too much alone to cope with the hazards of the

environment. This is experienced as a traumatic separation and loss.

Then the infant retreats into a sealed-off world in which he tries to

re-create this earlier sense of omnipotence.

It is a sensual world totally within his control. The environment is

nothing more than a collection of objects, stripped of meaning except

for the sensual pleasure they may give. This is why children and

adults who suffer from autism are so impenetrable and so hard to

relate to.

As well as the 'airlifted' installations, environmental awareness is

evident at Frieze in other pieces such as a water condensation

chamber constructed by the artist, Tue Greenfort, that siphons off

body moisture emitted by the fair-goers into plastic water bottles; a

photograph of dead skinned bears nailed to a plank from the Moscow

gallery, Regina; a video of rats packed into a glass container trying

to claw their way out, from another Moscow gallery, XL.

While these are all striking and in some cases repellent pieces,

their conception is so concrete that they verge on the kitsch. But

while it might be easy to classify them as merely ineffectual

or 'bad' art, seen together they convey something more disturbing to

do with a desire to possess and control the environment so that it is

reduced to an object, becoming two-dimensional.

Could this be a response to our increasing awareness of the lack of

control we have over our environment, and to our fear of what we have

already destroyed? Or is this an 'autistic' response - an attempt to

freeze time and space so that nothing can change or impinge on us or

our world view?

In the midst of the many two-dimensional objects and installations at

Frieze, there are notable exceptions. The piece that seemed to stand

out as a true expression of the pain and isolation of an autistic

world was a sculpture by Anselm Kiefer, titled Paete non dolet ('She

who cannot be touched does not grieve'), from White Cube.

The sculpture, made of plaster of Paris and fabric, shows a woman

draped in a wedding dress, much like a caryatid, with a tangled

cluster of barbed wire in place of her head. The juxtaposition of the

inviting drapes surrounding the woman's body and the barbed,

impenetrable mental space portrays the painful conflict of being

trapped within one's own defences to the point of becoming a lifeless

object.

The sculpture was in fact removed by Saturday morning because too

many people had become caught up in the barbed wire and had

complained of being attacked. The paradox of autism?

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This was my letter to the editor last week.

Coline Covington knows nothing about autism (Frieze Art Fair:

artistic or autistic?, October 20). One comment particularly

offensive to me, the mother of a child with autism, is the remark

about the child becoming autistic as a result of neglect. Bruno

Bettleheim spoke of refrigerator mothers back in the 60s. I thought

and hoped we'd moved on since then. Shame on you Coline.

Jane Georgiou FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2008

She responded with this

I am sorry that Jane Georgiou (previous letter) found my article

describing autistic states of mind " ignorant and offensive " (Freize

art fair: artistic or autistic?, October 20).

If Ms. Georgiou delves into psychoanalytic research and literature,

she will discover that I am not alone in my views but within the

mainstream. There is a substantial body of work, developed primarily

by the well known British child psychotherapist, Frances Tustin,

establishing " that autism is a reaction to an infantile trauma

associated with unbearable awareness of bodily separatedness from the

suckling mother " (Tustin, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 1993).

While there is research that indicates a genetic predisoposition to

autism, the quality of the environment is crucial to psychological

development in every case.

Coline Covington FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2008

So there you are folks!

jane

x

>

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> I read this article

>

> http://www.the firstpost.co.uk/45673,opin ion,frieze-art-fair-

artistic-

> or-autistic-coline-covington

>

> And wrote a letter, this is the response.

>

> http://www.thefirst post.co.uk/letters,,letters-to-the-editor

>

> Beggars belief!

>

[Guest guest]

Jane,

Were your comments published on the website? I couldn't find them. I

have done a little digging. Covington is a Jungian, and Jungians are

traditionally called Analytical Psychologists - perhaps they have

relabelled them selves. Jungianism is true murk.

Shall we take her and the publication on?

I shall forward the article to Prof. S.B-C asnd ask him if he would

be able to reply. May I forward your letter too?

Margaret

> >

> >

> > I read this article

> >

> > http://www.the firstpost.co.uk/45673,opin ion,frieze-art-fair-

> artistic-

> > or-autistic-coline-covington

> >

> > And wrote a letter, this is the response.

> >

> > http://www.thefirst post.co.uk/letters,,letters-to-the-editor

> >

> > Beggars belief!

> >

>

[Guest guest]

PS,

Dorothy Tustin to whom she refers is a big contributor to the moms

cause autism theiory. She was very active in the 1950s in the

USA.It's time to polish this rubbish off - perhaps also get the NAS

to comment?

Margaret

> > >

> > >

> > > I read this article

> > >

> > > http://www.the firstpost.co.uk/45673,opin ion,frieze-art-fair-

> > artistic-

> > > or-autistic-coline-covington

> > >

> > > And wrote a letter, this is the response.

> > >

> > > http://www.thefirst post.co.uk/letters,,letters-to-the-editor

> > >

> > > Beggars belief!

> > >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Hiya,

Yes my letter and her reply was published. I am going to comment

again hopefully tomorrow or the next day (1/2 term chaos permitting)

please do forward this to s b-c for his comments. If anyone else

wants to have their say feel free. I like the way you put it...'

polish this rubbish off'

I may be 'just' a housewife, but this twaddle does not help those

with autism, and i'll stand against anyone who makes comments like

hers!!

Jane

x

> > > >

> > > >

> > > > I read this article

> > > >

> > > > http://www.the firstpost.co.uk/45673,opin ion,frieze-art-fair-

> > > artistic-

> > > > or-autistic-coline-covington

> > > >

> > > > And wrote a letter, this is the response.

> > > >

> > > > http://www.thefirst post.co.uk/letters,,letters-to-the-editor

> > > >

> > > > Beggars belief!

> > > >

> > >

> >

>