Historically, safe houses were used as a sanctuary to hide people from persecution. Often, to protect those hidden within, the significance of the safe house was kept a secret; but the term safe house can also be used as a metaphor.
In dreams, the house represents the unconscious (Jung 1963). It is a symbol of the inner world of the dreamer. Different levels suggest times past, rooms act as dividers, doors open and close, and so on and so forth.
In the exhibition, the site ‘Safehouse 1’ represents the artists’ unconscious and the hidden secrets within it. Nicolas Abraham and Mária Török explored psychoanalytic notions of the secret, calling it the crypt; this is an embodied secret that produces ghost-like secrets in the family, sometimes incorporated materially into household objects.
The exhibited artwork hides a secret that can be deciphered by visitors. There are hidden messages and silent voices that are revealed by decoding design riddles, unravelling drawn metaphors and listening to solitary audio walks.
Artists
Anne Harild
Beatrice Lettice Boyle
Becky Allen
Betsy Dadd
Emma Rudge
Lara Lee
Rachel Emily Taylor
Tamsin Nagel
Yeni Kim
Writer:
Xenobe Purvis
Supported by Arts Council England.
Curated and Project Managed by Rachel Emily Taylor
