A Slip of Freuds: An evening of collective nouns and clutter

A Slip of Freuds
An evening of collective nouns and clutter.
Event hosted and curated by Zoë Mendelson at Artsadmin, London.

Following the publication of This Mess is a Place: A Collapsible Anthology of Collections and Clutter, Zoë Mendelson presented an evening dedicated to objects en masse and coagulated, including books themselves. Negotiating the nebulous boundaries between collecting and hoarding, Mendelson's art practice and writing questions the locations and languages of the onset of a pathology.

Calling upon contributors to the book, artists Daniel Rourke and Cecilie Gravesen, the evening was a chance to explore how museology, installation practice and critical readings of the object relate to the coagulated heap of the hoard. There was discussion of the visual diagnostic tools used by psychiatry to assess hoarding/hoarders developed with the support of psychiatrist, Dr Alberto Pertusa. Lynn Harris from AND Publishing presented a slide show locating innovations in the book as object and Jamie Stiby Harris showed a short film in which he reads from a book chopped in half. Cecilie Gravesen screened her film, 'Quiver' (2013), which explores frictions that arise from the metaphysical intent of ritual objects and the scientific concerns of heritage preservation.

Zoë Mendelson performed a section of her novel-in-progress The Detroit Project, as well as making a public display of getting rid of 250 misprints of Italo Calvino's essay on taking out the rubbish, La Poubelle Agréée (1974-6), as they were left over from the printing of the book.

• http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/events/3466
• http://thismessisaplace.co.uk/Salon