Tim Panaretos

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10 May – 1 June 2013

Paddy Lyn space: Tim Panaretos – The Invention of Drama

 

Musical instruments can be people too, in this case a neurotic family of three. Three points of a triangle, each representing habitual psychological roles acted out by people in various social groupings, the so-called ‘drama triangle’ of Transactional Analysis (TA) in which individuals play the part of persecutor, caretaker or victim. TA is a dissenting offshoot of psychoanalysis that looks at the interactions between people as opposed to an individual’s psyche; in this sound installation, members of the same family of long-necked lutes hang in space, communicating (or perhaps miscommunicating) with each other. The three anthropomorphic instruments with their individual voices also echo the uneven power dynamics implied in the drama triangle, not only direct authoritarian power and its corollary in disempowerment but also the implied power of the caretaker, otherwise known as ‘the rescuer’. Wielding the power of guilt, the latter role can be seen as corresponding to Michel Foucault’s idea of pastoral power, a form of power relations brought about by institutionalised religion in Westernised societies and extending into all levels of social institution from the family right up to the nation state. And if the choice is between eating food and eating shit, the two are not always so easy to tell apart.