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Sex and Shame in the Visual Arts

Kara Walker, 8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America, a Moving Picture by Kara E Walker, 2005
Kara Walker
8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America, a Moving Picture by Kara E Walker 2005
courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co © The artist
Saturday 15 November 2008, 14.00–17.00

Psychoanalysis has been used to discuss visual pleasure and the significance of the gaze in the apprehension of art. Freud suggested that visual pleasure is also related to shame, the complex, universal and painful affect that connects subjects to social relations.

The recent publication Shame and Sexuality: Psychoanalysis and Visual Culture brings the issue of shame into sharp focus by using psychoanalysis as a method for the analysis of visual culture. The authors will present their topics in relation to Tate's current exhibitions and displays and launch the book as a contribution to visual culture debates.

This event is chaired by Tamar Garb (University College London), panellists Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds), Malcolm Pines (psychoanalyst), Claire Pajaczkowska (Royal College of Art), Amna Malik (Slade School of Fine Art) and Ivan Ward (Freud Museum) will present a number of perspectives on shame, sexuality, the gaze and the image today.

In collaboration with the Royal College of Art and the Freud Museum

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£10 (£8 concessions), booking required
For tickets book online
or call 020 7887 8888.
Book tickets online

Access for wheelchairs and pushchairs  Hearing loop available  

The event is organised in collaboration with editors Claire Pajaczkowska, Senior Research Tutor in Fashion and Textiles at the Royal College of Art
and Ivan Ward, Director of Learning at the Freud Museum.