YORK conceptual artist Simon Morris's new work has been attracting interest from high places and famous faces.

Morris's The Royal Road To The Unconscious forms the inaugural exhibition at The Telephone Repeater Station, the new gallery space at Brompton-on-Swale, Richmond, opened by Catterick art collector Greville Worthington.

The late Russell Harty's favourite singer, the statuesque Grace Jones, has seen the show, while the exhibition title has caused a stir among Richmond's business community, as Morris explains.

"To help people locate the venue, Greville had a large red sign made with the title, The Royal Road To The Unconscious. Greville was amused to receive a call from the Richmond town planning authority to say they had received no fewer than six telephone calls of concern from local businesses that perhaps a cult or weird religious sect had moved into the building," says Morris. "Greville is now due to give the planning officer a tour of the space and the exhibition."

The exhibition is a collaborative project involving Morris, film-maker Daniel Jackson, photographers Maurizio Cogliandro and Dallas Seitz, psychoanalyst Dr Howard Britton, a Renault Clio and 83 students from York College, where Morris lectures.

The students cut out every word from Sigmund Freud's book Interpretation Of Dreams, and in June the 333,960 words were thrown from the window of the Renault Clio on Redbridge Road, Crossways, Dorset, approximately 122 miles south west of Freud's psychoanalytical couch in London, as Morris worked to a ready-made set of instructions in Ed Ruscha's book Royal Road Test.

The eruption of paper from the car was filmed, the words' landing positions were photographed, and then the words were swept up, to be re-assembled on the gallery floor at The Telephone Repeater Station. The Clio is on view too, along with 40 framed photographs and film of the car test.

What's it all about, Mr Morris? "The action freed the words from the structural unity of Freud's text as it subjected them to an aleatory moment," he says. That's clear then.

How have viewers reacted? "Approximately 300 people made the journey to the new building for the opening; it was really busy and the work seemed to go down really well, especially with small children," says Morris. "They threw handfuls of words at each other. We even had parents and children throwing words at each other at one point. Now Freud would definitely have something to say about fighting with language."

Freud no doubt would also know that 'aleatory' relates to the element of chance in poetic compositions.

Should your appetite be whetted - and why shouldn't it? - The Royal Road To The Unconscious is on view at Brompton-on-Swale until October 13 (opening hours, 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday) and then transfers to the Freud Museum from January to March 2004.

Updated: 09:52 Friday, October 03, 2003