In this essay, the critic Jaime Cerón reviews and discusses the Colombian photographer Adriana Duque’s work, Collectibles. Cerón begins by mentioning the idea of sinister (Sigmund Freud) and the unconscious (Jacques Lacan), two concepts that, according to Cerón, are the theoretical elements that underpin Duque’s visual art. Cerón also mentions the Polish theoretician Hans Bellmer whose Les Jeux de la Poupé [The Doll’s Games] (1949) suggested that the animation of inanimate objects (dolls and mannequins) was the playful locus for the generation of interpretations of visual, erotic, and childish stimuli, among others. Cerón addresses what he sees in Duque’s photographs as links to the theoretical and visual ideas mentioned above, looks back at the experimental side of Surrealist photography, and discusses certain theoreticians’ readings of Cindy Sherman’s photographs. He also discusses how Duque’s work “explores the sinister traits of photography itself and of its relationship to political and cultural realities in Colombia.” Collectibles also refers to Freud to identify “repression” as an unconscious act that maintains a relationship with the sinister quality mentioned earlier.        

Adriana Duque (b. 1967), winner of the 2006 National Colombian-Swiss Photography Prize, is a noted Colombian artist who works in the field of photography. Her work, defined as “postmodern,” focuses on childhood, games, traditional children’s stories and their characters, and indirectly questions the meaning of certain objects and ideas associated with the early stages of life. Her work usually expresses these themes in mysterious environments, such as a typical rural setting. She provokes a certain sense of discord by including characters or objects that are out of place, echoing Freud’s unheimlich (unfamiliar) experience with her approach to what he termed “sinister.” 

Collectibles was exhibited as part of FOTOLOGÍA 5 (International Photography Festival of Bogotá) at the Alonso Garcés Gallery. Jaime Cerón, the critic and scholar who specializes in the connections between psychoanalysis and art, wrote the essay about Adriana Duque, in which he discusses the links he sees between Duque’s work and the idea of sinister (as suggested by Sigmund Freud) and the action of the unconscious (as posited by Jacques Lacan). Cerón also mentions George Bataille’s Surrealism and the practice of “appropriating” the images and ideas of postmodern art. Cerón’s essay is an example of how philosophical thought and the theories concerning “visual” expression have influenced contemporary art.

Cerón’s critical essays provide the viewer with an appropriate context that contributes to a deeper understanding of the images involved. He writes at a technical level but uses colloquial examples to explain the philosophical concepts and theories that he quotes. Collectibles, for example, while focusing on the process of making cookies, tries to show how, contrary to what one might think: “the unconscious is separate from the subjects,” which is rather useful to those wishing to grasp the deeper meaning of Duque’s photographs (http://www.adrianaduque.com).

Cerón is well-known in this particular field due to the interesting connections he makes between art and psychoanalysis both in his essays and as a curator, though this is not the only subject he addresses in his work. He spent ten years as the Manager of Visual Arts at the Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo [District Institute of Culture and Tourism] (1997 - 2006), where he generated a great deal of activity in the field of visual arts in Colombia.