September 24 – October 26, 2015
Jerry Mischak • Kathleen O’Hara • Ben Sloat
Cohen Gallery, The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts
Brown University, Providence, RI
Uncanny Parables explores the connotations of the word “uncanny” as used by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 treatise, “The Uncanny”. Freud’s definition of the word derives from the negation of the German heimlich, which means belonging to the house, familiar, tame, intimate, homey. The inherent dialectic here is revealed at the moment when the familiar becomes uncomfortable, even frightening. Freud identifies the pivotal point in this phenomenon as the instant when our certainty of ourselves, and the safety of our hearth and home, come into question.
We experience the uncanny in our everyday lives: television programs, films, and books bombard us with zombies, vampires, myths, fairy tales, and horror-evoking creatures and situations of all stripes. Common to all these narratives is the moment just before the scary part when the ordinary no longer feels safe.
Uncanny Parables presents the work of three artists who investigate this tipping point, where one’s everyday sense of security becomes threatened by the unfamiliar, Freudian “uncanny.”
