Current Review(s)
'The Binding'
Christine Dixie at Gallery AOPAt the entrance to Christine Dixie’s exhibition 'The Binding' at Gallery AOP, are two open books, spread out flat like pressed butterflies, framed and hanging against the wall. They are digitally printed scans of two canonical stories in the history of western culture. The first is the biblical narrative in which Abraham ties his son Isaac to a sacrificial alter on God’s command. God puts a halt to this activity just as Abraham is about to slaughter his son. The other story in the pair is a case study from Sigmund Freud’s 'The Interpretation of Dreams', which tells of a father who dreams that his deceased son stands at his bedside and whisper to him, 'Father, can’t you see I’m burning?' In the adjacent room, where the son lies in his death shroud, a candle has fallen over and had begun to burn the boy’s arm. The father has fallen asleep after a long vigil over the dying boy, and the dream, according to Freud, represents the fulfilment of the Father’s wish to see the son alive once more.
These two stories frame Dixie’s exhibition in place of an explanatory wall text, and the viewer is expected to read the symbols that emerge in the works that fill the room through this double lens. An indirect sequel to her 2007 exhibition ‘Parturient Prospects’ which looked at historical social constructs of maternity, ‘The Binding’ suggests that paternity and patriarchy are figured in Western societies by the passing down of sacrificial behaviour.
08 May 2010 - 29 May 2010
Listings(s)
'The Binding'
Christine Dixie at Gallery AOPThe follow-up to Dixie's 2007 exhibition 'Parturient Prospect', which looked at mother-daughter relationships, 'The Binding' examines paternity, and particularly its links to violence and sacrifice.
08 May 2010 - 29 May 2010
