Thursday, March 21, 2013

Leaping into a Jungian Journey: Preview of Leaping Fish in the City (21-22 March 2013)

Preview: 20 March 2013

A woman who embarks on a research to find out more about the city she is living in and a man who is eccentric, but throws one or two lines of wise words at moments least expected, sustained the 45-minute Leaping Fish in the City with humorous moments.
 
To me, it's a very Jungian piece, where the woman encounters the shadow, animus and Self aspects within her. According to the psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1990), the shadow consists of the dark elements of the personality with emotional and primitive aspects that resist moral control; the animus is the masculine aspect that a woman experiences; and the Self archetype is often a spiritual character with knowledge, insight, wisdom, cleverness and intuition, represented by a wise old man. To Jung (1964), the shadow in each individual represents the hidden, repressed and unfavorable aspects of the personality.

In the performance, the peculiar man, who does not behave within the boundary of a commonly accepted social behavioral convention, is a reflection of the woman’s inner shadow that she is rejecting and repressing. At the same time, the man is also the wise Self within the woman, which is represented by her inner voices that she hears at some points of time despite her hectic lifestyle.


After rejecting and ignoring the shadow and inner silence within her for the majority of her adult life, the woman eventually embraces the animus and accepts the shadow within her. She finally stops and listens to her heart, and starts to understand who she is. 

Dates: Thursday 21 March (SOLD OUT), Friday 22 March (Limited tickets available)
Admission: $18/$12 (concession) available from The Substation box office (63377800) 
Time & Venue: 8pm,  The Substation Gallery (45 Armenian Street, S179936).



References:

Jung, C.G. (1964). Approaching the Unconscious.In C.G. Jung (ed.). Man and His 
            Symbols (pp.1-94).  London: Aldus Books.

Jung, C.G. (1990). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious(R.F.C. Hull, 
            Trans). NJ: Princeton University Press (Originally published 1963).