Preconscious Landscape presents selected works from seventeen contemporary artists which grapple with an unresolvable psychoanalytic question: what does it mean for the conscious mind to try to understand its own preconsciousness?

In The Unconscious (1915) and The Ego and the Id (1923), Sigmund Freud examines the workings of the mind to identify three fundamental structures: the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. He describes these structures as layered, portraying the mind as topographic. The conscious is the surface-level structure which holds the ideas, memories, desires and anxieties that can be recognised and responded to by the individual. Successfully censored and repressed psychic contents reside in the deepest structure, the unconscious. In a state of repression, the individual cannot actively identify or inspect this content.

The preconscious occupies the space between these two structures. It is a liminal space which stores memories, drives and fears in a state of suspension. As Freud explains, the preconscious “is not yet conscious, but it is certainly capable of entering consciousness”.[1] This psychic structure holds potential. There may be glimmers of its contents, perhaps a sensation of something being ‘on the tip of one’s tongue’, but they must be coaxed out with prompts and provocations in order to resurface.

Preconscious Landscape responds to Freud’s analysis, exploring the imagery, observations and questions that arise when examining the preconscious mind. Each artwork has been selected for its ability to prompt the viewer to consider the liminal, ambiguous and latent. Ceramics embody the fragility of the mind and its memories, while soft sculptures illustrate their mutability. Paintings construct intricate layers and complex spaces which echo the ‘in-between-ness’ of the preconscious and investigate the connections between the self, memory and place. Photographic works capture the enigmatic and the uncanny, transforming the ordinary into the sublime whilst evoking the uneasy experience of recalling a half-forgotten dream.

This collection of artworks begins to dissect humanity’s pursuit to know and understand itself. How can we make sense of a fundamentally comprehendible part of ourselves? Why are we so drawn to exploring, if not solving, the unknowable?

[1]. Sigmund Freud, The Unconscious, 1915, p. 123.