Art and the Occasional Randomness From the Mind of a Crazed Artist
Holy hell, an article! Yes, I’ve been very bad about writing. Bad ManDuh, bad.
Hera; Francis Picabia 1929
But today isn’t about my shortcomings, today is all about Dada. Dada is a little-known movement that occurred just before and heavily influenced Surrealism. In fact many well known Surrealists were also Dadaists and the influence can be seen in their surreal work.
All pictures this article are screenshots of Destino taken from my computer.
Shout out to Mulysa Mayhem of Abysmal Accessories for the inspiration for today’s article!
Female main character
It was Mulysa that yesterday brought to my attention Destino – a six minute cartoon that was a planned collaboration between Salvador Dali and (are you ready for this?) Walt Disney. Dali once referred to Disney as one of “the three great American surrealists.”* As the opening of Destino tell us, the two began the collaboration in 1946. But Disney’s financial problems led to the project being shelved and locked away in Disney’s infamous vaults, and it wasn’t approached again before either Disney’s death in 1966 or Dali’s in 1989.*
So let’s talk Salvador Dali. I’m sure pretty much everyone knows of his Surreal work. After all, it’s essentially the poster art of Surrealism. But his body of work is actually much more widespread and, like many artists, he went through many phases and styles. For example, would you believe this is a Dali?
Bathers of the Costa Brava; 1923
Firstly, just a reminder about my print giveaway!)
I was sitting on my back porch a little while ago, and one of my neighbors was walking her dog in a couple of empty lots that sort of form an “L” around ours. I consider us friendly with this neighbor (which in our neighborhood means that we speak occasionally and don’t hate each other). But I sat reading and typing away on my laptop and she kept walking her dog until it did its business and neither of us said anything to the other.
It just got me thinking about how much we ignore each other. Now the cynical part of me (roughly 99%) says that a good deal of people are boring and worth ignoring. But that one little percent of me wonders why people are like that. Why do we isolate ourselves from each other?
This got me thinking of ways to connect more with other people, and I thought of Exquisite Corpse. Exquisite Corpse was a game the Surrealists played. A paper is folded in thirds or fourths. The first person starts at the top with a drawing, and overlaps it with the fold just a little bit. The second person, without looking at the first’s work, continues the drawing with what #1 left overlapped, and so on until everyone has gotten their initial drawing on their third/fourth done. Some times then that’s the end, other times then all the players are allowed to add (only add, not erase) any part of the drawing.
I posted about this on the Riot Grrrl Online’s discussion board, but I’d really like to get a game or two going of this over mail. For example, we get four people on board. I start, then mail the paper to the next person. They do their part (remember, no peeking!), then send it to the next person, who does theirs and sends it to the last person, who does their drawing and sends it back to me. I scan it and email it to all the players so everyone can see what everyone else has done. Then I do some additions and send it to the next person, etc, until we all agree it’s finished.
So is any one else interested in playing?
(Don’t forget to enter the giveaway here!)
When most people think of Dali, they don’t think about movies. But they should, because Un Chien Andalou is pretty much the best 17 minute movie ever.
Made in 1929, it’s basically a black-and-white, live-action Dali painting. As anyone vaguely familiar with the movie knows, it opens with an extreme close up of a man slicing a woman’s eyeball open with a straight razor. And from there, it just keeps getting better!
It’s so short, I really don’t want to say too much and ruin it for anyone who subsequently goes and sees it, so I’ll try to keep this spoiler-proof. It’s actually a collaboration between Dali and Luis Bunuel. Not being as familiar with Bunuel’s work, I tend to see the very Dali things about the short. Ants, Dali’s favorite symbols of death and decay, and sexuality/masturbation are as present as ever. In particular, Dali displays once again his anxiety about his sexuality (he claimed to only find sexual relief in masturbation) in one particular scene, in which ants pour from the palm of a man’s right hand.
The non-linear time is also worth noting, as it takes you a bit by surprise and is used quite humorously.
If you rent or buy the DVD, I highly suggest you get a copy of the version with the extra commentary. The commentaries are longer than the movie itself, but they are so worth it. As a Dali fanatic, I found out some things from these commentaries that I didn’t previously know about Dali. Now I leave you with a kick ass song written about the movie, The Pixies Debaser.
A lot of people find porcelain dolls creepy, especially when there’s a large collection displayed close together. I personally have never been one of those people, and I think the same can safely be said for today’s Artist You Should Know, Ugly Shyla.
Ugly Shyla Portrait Doll
What the Water Gave Me; 1938
I mean seriously, what can I really say about Frida Kahlo that hasn’t been said a million times already? How can I write an article about her without it sounding like an art history class report? Well, probably nothing and I can’t, but I was writing about feet today and now I can’t stop thinking about What the Water Gave Me, so today’s Artist You Should Know is in fact Frida Kahlo folks! Read the rest of this entry »