KLAUS WEHNER

Rarities in Pictures

Installation of 'Aperitif' at Camberwell Artsweek 5 at the Conductor's Hallway, 1999
Installation at Camberwell Artsweek 5, Cundoctor's Hallway, 1999: The video is playing on a monitor which is placed at the head of a dining table that is covered with a white table cloth.

Aperitif (Melancholia), 1999, 2.50 minutes, looped.



I was introduced to aspects of Sigmund Freud's Theories and the basics of psychoanalysis in my teenage years when I opted to attend 'Ethik' classes as alternative to compulsory 'Religion' classes in school. In my later academic studies I engaged in psychoanalytic theory in more depth. I am still not a specialist and much of my research is based on secondary, explanatory literature but aspects of many concepts stayed with me and continue to influence my thinking and my work. Some of these are Julia Kristeva's writings on Melancholia and her concept of the 'Abject' as well as Lacan's writings on his concept of the 'Real'.
At the time, I was very inspired by moving image and film. I had just finished my MA studies, where my dissertation was an alalysis of Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover' applying Kristeva's notion of the 'abject'.

Though I never set out to make work 'about' any such theories Aperitif and also I Summon You are early works of mine where my initial idea was most directly inspired by psychoanalytic thought.