Susan Hiller

The Curiosities of Sigmund Freud 2005

9 Iris glicee prints , 30 x 20 inches, ed. 5


Spirits Dark & Fair The Arctic Council discussing the plan
of rescue for Sir John Franklin: 11 portraits		 Jubilee Group of the Royal Fanily
The State Visit to the Royal Italian Opera on Thurs. April 19 1855: 10 portraits "Here the pen fell out of my hand and inscribed these secret signs. I beg your forgiveness and ask that you not trouble yourself with an interpretation."
(8 August 1882 letter to Martha Bernays)		 Sunday Morning
Oh! The £1000 Bank of England Note The Kings & Queens of England from the Conquest to Queen Victoria
Eight of these images are derived from glass slides called 'miniature curiosities for the microscope' owned by the Freud family. Probably their original owner was Sigmund Freud himself, since they date from the early years of Victoria's reign. The slides are composite or collaged microdots of paintings and photographs meant to please the eye in the process of becoming legible when greatly magnified. The relatively crude technology of those days makes the enlarged images highly ambiguous. I think it 's very pleasurable to experience the mystery of decipherment suggested by the titles (as per the original slides) or just to allow the blurry, blobby shapes to hover on the brink of seeming to form something.

The suggestion of colour is pretty much entirely my own doing based on the barest traces in the originals.

One slide advising the reader not to interpret the accidental image is derived from a letter written by Sigmund Freud to his fiancée. It's included in the set because I think it indicates how they should all be looked at.