From the Darwin Translations: Freud's Couch

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Freud's Couch addresses the proposition that there is a feminine erotic voice; that it remains underdeveloped however, is to the detriment of a more complex understanding of sexuality to articulate a more active role for women. This 45 minute single screen, colour projection of a man based on a psychoanalyst's couch with female voiceover is innovative in its use of a single point perspective / view - that of the psychoanalyst. We, as viewers, are thereby also the psychoanalyst. This endowment is reinforced with a woman's voice speaking as though she, not the man seen, is the analysand.

She becomes increasingly frank describing her sexual fantasies as the man becomes increasingly naked. In creating a space where the viewer becomes an active part of the work through endowment and where the subject matter is an open engagement with a woman's sexual fantasies, new knowledge is created about the possible role of art to provide new experiences in culturally complex areas (here, as addressed by Freud). The experience of the viewer, endowed as analyst, here is successful in its refusal to allow the viewer to take a disinterested observer's role.

The discomfort of being in a very small room, listening to erotic stories by a woman as a man undresses was experienced by every viewer. Many spoke about it, confirming the work's ability to challenge the idea of the disinterested analyst. The significance of this research into the possible social role of art is confirmed by the invitation by RMIT Gallery Director, Suzanne Davies to take part in the group exhibition Penetralia: Art and Psychoanalysis in Melbourne, 1940 -2004. In this large exhibition about psychoanalysis in Melbourne this was the single contribution that dealt overtly with the engendered taboos of sexuality. It was included in the accompanying catalogue and through reviews on the exhibition by Janine Burke in Art Monthly (Issue 173, Sept 2004) and Robert Nelson in The Age (28 July, 2004).