20
Jane McAdam Freud
A Poetic Encounter
A Zoom Talk on April 28th 2021 to members of the
Surrey Sculpture Society and the public
Jane’s focus for this talk was the “before” and “after” of her art projects in the context of the pandemic. She told us about her work before the pandemic, her reflections on what was happening to us in encounters with art and each other during lockdowns and the influence of the pandemic on her art. It is this part of her talk that I am focusing on here.
Readers are encouraged to watch the short video first. (Marian Ironmonger, the video editor, added more images of Jane’s sculptures, so those who attended the zoom presentation will get to see new images. )
Jane’s talk was in three sections. First she showed us a selection of past works, focusing on ‘We are they’, held at the Gazelli Art House, Baku. There, she got close enough to a person to draw round him or her as a contemporary living sculpture. She touched on life celebrating intimacy and the quality of our human relationships; the light touches of reassurance, the hugs of love and consolation, the sharing of food and talking at close quarters. All this brought the trust and physicality entailed in being in someone’s space.
Jane then turned to her work during the pandemic - paintings on paper - and explored these changes. She described the pandemic as ‘a pause’, ’society’s menopause’. She found herself turning away from work that involved other people and her usual materials, found objects and rusty metal, which could involve injury and infection.
Jane’s paintings made during the pandemic will be exhibited in Window Project, in Tbilisi, Georgia in November. She likened the art made during lockdown to her interpretation of the Restless Sleeper by Magritte. (This is copyrighted to Tate so interested readers can find a copy of the image on this link. )
“A figure sleeps in a wooden alcove above a dark cloudy sky. The way into this space is barred by a tablet embedded with everyday objects, which are displayed as in a children’s book. These objects are presented as if dreamed by the sleeper. As Magritte knew, some or all of them could also be read as Freudian symbols. This combination of different possible interpretations adds to the painting’s suggestion of unease and disorientation.”