Max Ernst: A classic Surrealist production
In his long poem Les Chants de Maldoror, Lautréamont described a young boy as "beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella". This idea, that the bringing together of previously unrelated things, would force the reader to become aware of a much wider aesthetic, and begin to appreciate a vision of life that was far wider and more inclusive than that previously accepted, was at the centre of Surrealist thinking. This was why Lautréamont was venerated by Breton and was seen as a Surrealist precursor. The universe however does this all the time. The random chaos that is the day to day reality of existence, ensures that unfamiliar juxtapositions are being made constantly, some adhere together, some are repelled from each other, some result in mutual annihilation and others in a new formal metamorphosis.
In the past, dream states were exemplified as places where we might experience the fluidity of identity, where a human being could also be an animal, inhabit a landscape or live as a tree. Animist beliefs and roles such as that of the shaman were central to this type of understanding of the world, one that slipped in and out of rationality, as easily and as naturally as we now fall asleep; it was part of an everyday reality. Our dreams are no longer seen as an essential part of our lived experience, the shaman is no longer a valued member of society; but as an artist that works with often unexpected connections, I believe that perhaps the shaman has a role that will become more and more important as society becomes to rely on data rather than human instinct in order to make decisions. The deeper point about the chance meeting of seemingly totally unrelated objects is that any juxtaposition was in the past recognised as being important, chance was more often thought of as fate. The stars and their relative positions that just happen to be seen as they are from one particular point in space occupied by one particular species, have been given a vast network of meanings because of apparent relationships. Human imagination will feed on any juxtapositions and will look for meanings in them. The humans that have created a vast information lattice based on seeing stars from the point of view of the third planet out from a particular sun, are linked together by their ability to create poetic narratives, narratives that are central to their specific way of being. As other things bump into the picture of nowness that is always changing, new narratives will of course be constructed about them, but not all these narratives will be useful or interesting. In the sandbox of becoming some forms become memorable, some will change the way we think, but many will simply arise and disappear again without impinging on the consciousness of anyone else besides the dreamer in the sandbox. It is however that arising narrative, that story of possibility that allows us as a species to project ourselves out from a closed off inner world, into one that allows others to join in and share the narratives we create and in sharing in some way to bring what was a dream or a fabulation, into some form of reality.
This is a very old thing as far as humans are concerned. In order to organise communal living some form of communication is central to the task. The first humans would have had to seek some sort of accommodation with the world and as they did that they would have had to communicate with each other as well as other non-human things that they found in the reality that they had to negotiate with.
The Runa, (A South American Indian tribe from the Ávila area), have a wonderful story about fixing a thatched roof and trapping a jaguar. They are still animist in their mind sets and because of this can address other creatures as if they were part of an extended family, no different to other humans, except other animals' separate points of view are perhaps clearer. This is how Eduardo Kohn introduces the story in his book, 'How Forests Think'.
A man is standing on top of the straw roof of his hut and he intends to mend the many holes in the thatch, however this is a very difficult job because although he could see all the places where the holes were from inside his hut because the sun would shine through each and every hole, now he is on the roof he can't spot where they are. He needs help and the only creature in sight is a roaming jaguar. "Son-in-law" he calls, immediately informing the jaguar that they are related and therefore the big cat must have certain obligations to the man, "help me fix this roof by going into the hut and poking a stick through every hole you can see that the sun shines through." From inside the house there is a very different view point from someone on the outside, but when a stick is poked through to identify the holes the two viewpoints are aligned, no matter how different they are as individuals. Both inside and outside views converge each time as the stick breaks through and in the convergence a new 'higher' vision is achieved that will allow or facilitate a task to be completed.
In the story there is a further twist, once the jaguar has been enticed to go inside the hut, he can of course be simply trapped by the man on the roof leaning over and shutting the door. The hut now becoming a trap. The jaguar is in one time frame a family member that has obligations, and yet the jaguar is still a jaguar, a dangerous beast that had just that last week attacked and killed two of the man's dogs. In a shamanistic world human identity can slip in and out of other creatures and things, there is no sharp defining difference that we like to think there is in our own identity centred culture. However I'm not sure our way of thinking of ourselves as individuals is as clear cut as we think it is. When I have for instance scraped the side of the car in a badly judged parking manoeuvre, I bodily felt that scrape as if I had grazed by own knee. The car had become an extension of my body. When I make a drawing, I feel the transfer of my mind to another thing very strongly. Above all when I'm working with others I find all sorts of ways to enter their point of view in order to get something done. When carrying a heavy object between two people we constantly shift our grip to accommodate changes in the other person's carrying position. An immediate empathy has to be built up or we will drop whatever it is we are carrying. The two become one in order to achieve a greater thing. Kohn says this is 'being alive to a living logic in moments of its emergence'. (2013, p. 98) Two things need to come together in order for a greater understanding to develop. This is very like depth perception when looking. Because we have two separate eyes we have two separate views of reality, by comparing them we can judge depth. It is in bringing things together that new viewpoints are discovered.
This is a very old thing as far as humans are concerned. In order to organise communal living some form of communication is central to the task. The first humans would have had to seek some sort of accommodation with the world and as they did that they would have had to communicate with each other as well as other non-human things that they found in the reality that they had to negotiate with.
An Ávila area Shaman
A man is standing on top of the straw roof of his hut and he intends to mend the many holes in the thatch, however this is a very difficult job because although he could see all the places where the holes were from inside his hut because the sun would shine through each and every hole, now he is on the roof he can't spot where they are. He needs help and the only creature in sight is a roaming jaguar. "Son-in-law" he calls, immediately informing the jaguar that they are related and therefore the big cat must have certain obligations to the man, "help me fix this roof by going into the hut and poking a stick through every hole you can see that the sun shines through." From inside the house there is a very different view point from someone on the outside, but when a stick is poked through to identify the holes the two viewpoints are aligned, no matter how different they are as individuals. Both inside and outside views converge each time as the stick breaks through and in the convergence a new 'higher' vision is achieved that will allow or facilitate a task to be completed.
In the story there is a further twist, once the jaguar has been enticed to go inside the hut, he can of course be simply trapped by the man on the roof leaning over and shutting the door. The hut now becoming a trap. The jaguar is in one time frame a family member that has obligations, and yet the jaguar is still a jaguar, a dangerous beast that had just that last week attacked and killed two of the man's dogs. In a shamanistic world human identity can slip in and out of other creatures and things, there is no sharp defining difference that we like to think there is in our own identity centred culture. However I'm not sure our way of thinking of ourselves as individuals is as clear cut as we think it is. When I have for instance scraped the side of the car in a badly judged parking manoeuvre, I bodily felt that scrape as if I had grazed by own knee. The car had become an extension of my body. When I make a drawing, I feel the transfer of my mind to another thing very strongly. Above all when I'm working with others I find all sorts of ways to enter their point of view in order to get something done. When carrying a heavy object between two people we constantly shift our grip to accommodate changes in the other person's carrying position. An immediate empathy has to be built up or we will drop whatever it is we are carrying. The two become one in order to achieve a greater thing. Kohn says this is 'being alive to a living logic in moments of its emergence'. (2013, p. 98) Two things need to come together in order for a greater understanding to develop. This is very like depth perception when looking. Because we have two separate eyes we have two separate views of reality, by comparing them we can judge depth. It is in bringing things together that new viewpoints are discovered.
Dali: The Great Masturbator
Dali was very adept at recognising the power of an image that lay between two states, his liquid forms lending themselves to a constant metamorphosis and a coming into being that chimed perfectly with Surrealist doctrine.
I have previously cited collage as one of the most important working methods to ever be introduced into art making. It is also one of the most recent and was a central weapon in the Surrealist armory. Collage relies on the fact that in a society like ours there is a great deal of waste, and the two disciplines of college and montage are it could be argued; poetic waste collectors. Assemblage or combines are also common terms to describe artworks that essentially operate by bringing together fragments of the world into new wholes and because our world is constantly seeking what is seen as new or novel, there is also a constant flow into the rubbish bins of society, things that are obsolescent and out of date. 'Who wants yesterday's papers' went that old pop song refrain, nobody, except the artist who is going to use them for collage.
Cornell: A parrot for Juan Gris
The tribes of the Ávila are very aware of the importance of combining two or more viewpoints in order to achieve a higher understanding. If we begin to look at collage techniques as simply another way of looking at bringing together two different points of view in order to develop a more sophisticated or 'higher' vision, collage can be regarded as a technique that helps to facilitate a much older 'shamanistic' or 'animist' way of immersing oneself back into the world. However this is not just about chance, it is more about looking for something that triggers meaning, even if this is only an idea of a possible meaning. As one image arrives in relation to another, we can as artists begin to edit these relationships and only let out into the world those that surprise or elicit a 'smile in the mind'. But we should never forget that 'fixing the roof' is a very practical thing and that the bringing together of different viewpoints is also known as triangulation and in triangulation we have not just a way of developing a better idea of something but a way of setting out a proof to others that can be verified. The 'surreal' world that many deride as fanciful could then be seen as simply a model for how the way we build up communication with others works. By 'others' I'm intimating here that it is as important to think about how what we do affects everything else as well as how it might change our relationship with other humans.
A less well known line from Les Chants de Maldoror is one concerning Lautréamont’s dream of being a hog.
‘I dreamt I had entered the body of a hog, that I could not easily get out again, and that I was wallowing in the filthiest slime. Was it a kind of reward? My dearest wish had been granted, I no longer belonged to mankind’.
Maldoror, Part IV, Chapter 6
I spotted a figurine of a pig reading in a junk shop and for a while it became a character in some drawings I was making. I'm always interested when I see echoes of ways of thinking that cross cultures and times. In our current western culture these figures are now seen as kitsch and of little worth, but when we look at them historically they seem to sit in a much more important position. It could be that we are reading these small figures in the wrong way and that their ubiquitous presence is actually a sign of their continuing significance.
Varaha: The third avatar of Lord Vishnu
The term avatar has often been used to refer to a soul that has been freed from delusion and is sent back into day to day existence to help others. Examples include Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Krishna. An avatar exists to give us hope that we can all achieve a state of consciousness far beyond what we feel is possible in our everyday experience of the world. However a more recent use of the word is in the computer generated world of virtual reality, in this we can have our own avatars that operate as separate entities from ourselves. The idea is a shell, one that we can can inhabit in several ways and hopefully it is an idea that will allow us to construct a future space for holistic communication between ourselves and others.
Pokémon sprites that can be used as avatars
Pokémon sprite Granbull: Human\bulldog hybrid
The Minotaur as depicted on early Greek pottery
Picasso: From the Vollard suite of etchings
The idea of human / animal hybrids allows us to consider what it might be to slip in and out of our own skins into another creature's.
Patricia Piccinini
The Chapman Brothers playing the Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse.
'Consequences' or 'Exquisite Corpse' games are ways to artificially generate imagery by bringing together unexpected conjunctions. These games nearly always throw up interesting things, however the deeper issue of 'fate' or something underlying the apparent random nature of a chaos driven universe is what we have to look at if we are to use these games as part of a communication system.
A dusty bin money box
A now long gone TV game show has echoes of itself sitting in the junk shops of our minds, even an old dustbin has potential as a carrier of an idea of an alternative vision of ourselves, one that allows us to see ourselves as being able to have potential relationships with many things, both organic and inorganic.
Potential reading:
The work of Surrealism has often seemed to me to be a sort of contemporary shamanic idea. Artists try to reconnect with the animate spirits that connect us to the other things of this world and which cement us into the processes of being that at times we can feel totally separated from. Benyshek's writings are a very good introduction to this ancient tradition and its continuing relevance.
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