Das Traüman took place within the Jason Rhoades’ installation The Creation Myth, part of the exhibition Jason Rhoades, Four Roads at BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art in 2015 that was described by Ingrid Schaffner in the exhibition publication as a “model of the artist’s brain at work”. The event was staged by NEUSCHLOSS - an irregular coalition of teaching staff at Northumbria University who, through collaborative practice, explore the problem of what it is to make art within the context of an academic institution.
NEUSCHLOSS invited guests Neal White, Paula Smithard, Holly Pester and Peter Wolfendale to engage with the mythic imaginings of Rhoades work by responding to the question, “what goes on inside the mind of an artist?” In turn, potential audience members were asked to apply for attendance by emailing a response to the question, “why would you like to take part in a discussion inside an artwork that has been described as a model of the artist’s brain at work?” A decision was made early in the process that, in order to better reflect the conceptual dimension of the question, there would be no video, audio or photographic documentation; instead, drawings were produced during the event by artist Ant Macari and by AAS through a para-psychic ‘remote viewing’ session from where AAS were based in London. All correspondence, drawings, remote viewing session notes, contributor notes, and audience responses were collated and edited into a book, The Place of Dead Rhoades published by IMT Gallery, London.
