University Art Museum exhibition explores intersections of psychoanalysis, asylums and oppression

The Binghamton University Art Museum announces the opening of Michal Heiman: Chronically Linked, on view Sept. 8 through Dec. 10, in the main gallery and mezzanine of the museum, located in the Fine Arts Building on campus. All fall 2022 exhibitions will open from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8. The opening reception is free and open to the public.

Featuring photographs, videos and archival materials, the exhibition explores the intersections of psychoanalysis, asylums and oppression through recent projects including Michal Heiman Tests (1997-2012); Radical Link: A New Community of Women, 1855-2021 (2013-present); and Hearing (2020). The latter projects found their genesis in 2013 when Heiman, doing research for another project, encountered a photograph of a young woman taken around 1855 at the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum in London by Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond. A few years later, Heiman found a similar image, this of Maria Dominica D’Alberto, who was photographed by Oreste Bertani at the San Servolo Asylum in Venice in January 1880. Heiman recognized a version of herself in both images, thus setting her on a path to recontextualize the photographs through her artistic process and research. The exhibition is organized by curator of collections and exhibitions, Claire L. Kovacs.

In conjunction with the Michal Heiman exhibition is Unconventional Care: The Mission of the NYS Inebriate Asylum. It is on view in the museum’s lower galleries, along with Death in Venice: Bright Scenes with Dark Themes, curated by Eliana Ellerton ’23; Beau Idéal: American Love and Life, curated by Taylor Garris ’23; and Returning to Touch, curated by Aaron Berkowitz ’23.

For details on upcoming programming, see the “Events” page and social media.