Melting Clocks & Broken Columns

15th April 2021

Melting Clocks & Broken Columns

A disorderly imagination, beyond the bounds of reality, beyond the bounds of rational thoughts – where bizarre, insane strokes brought about a revolution.

In the midst of the chaos & destruction of World War I, 19-year-old André Breton witnessed Europe morph into an entirely different entity, a harbour of blood. War subjected society to question and scrutiny, if rationality ensued in tremendous casualties, perhaps, it was time to paint an unprecedented stroke. And so, came about the “Dada” movement, rebelling against the norms, of which Breton was an original member. The Dadas curated art that made a political statement, embracing elements of music, poetry and theatre; they believed the rejection of rationality and search for revolution would bring war to a joyous halt.

Breton’s dream of a man sliced in half by a window opened him to the existence of an unconscious—a closed door; a muddled imagination; the purest form. One that drives our wants & fears; it brings to life the irrational thoughts that entice screams, or lock us in a vortex of confusion. Was this the revolution he so craved? If revolutionary ideas were stifled, a society brimming with imbalance would give rise to a war-struck land. To catapult balance, Breton wished to enter the unconscious and set it free—this marked the birth of the Surrealists.

Surrealists placed their focus on dreams, cuddling things that don’t make sense. With key elements being a dreamlike effect, dislocation, juxtaposition and transformation, surrealism spread all throughout Europe in a plethora of forms—whether that be the clarity of cinema, the mere bends of a sculpture, or the lucidity of a painting. The intricacies of surrealism lie in its eccentricity—it has no rulebook, not a set of lines to trace. It can be disgusting, petrifying, and still be deemed art, as long as it comes from the unconscious mind.

Salvador Dali facilitated the spread and growth of surrealism especially in unfrequented forms of media, such as cinema. His movie, Un chien andalou gave rise to a shocked and surprised audience owing to its unprecedented and rather disturbing graphics. Moreover, he made surrealism accessible; he utilized it as a tool to completely express himself, and “saved” it when Breton’s priorities switched to engulfing politics, due to this, disagreements arose between Dali & Breton.

Surrealism seems to evoke the Uncanny—the phenomenon of an unnerving familiarity; a warped resurfacing of a long-buried piece of the past. Given its relation to a hidden entity, however, one possessed by everybody, surrealist art is reeled by a continuous mechanism of the Uncanny—the strangest, eeriest, most out-of-context acquaintance.

An excerpt from Martha Nochimson’s book ‘David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire’ in which she converses with film director David Lynch who’s been dubbed as “the first popular surrealist” portrays not only Lynch’s perspective but perhaps, flawlessly sums up the ideology behind surrealism, and what it not only tends to, but desires to evoke:

“In Plato’s metaphor, the driver of the chariot is reason and the horses he rules over are emotion and instinct, which from the Platonic point of view require the stewardship of reason. When I asked Lynch what he thought of that analogy, he responded, ‘What if no one is driving the chariot?’ Years later, I now know that he was talking about possibility, not chaos. And even David Lynch is not driving the buggy for the audience of Mulholland Drive; he disclaims full knowledge of why he has used certain images, identifying his reception of their effects with ours. The images are not those enforced by power but are there to stimulate the moment.”

Emotion, a true dive into the unconscious, that brings about pieces of work which portray no apparent intelligibility, but seem so emotionally intimate—is what Surrealism essentially is—a driverless chariot.

As World War II broke out, the surrealists fell apart, nonetheless, their legacy remains, in the most lifelike of shapes. Even now, surrealism exists in all forms of contemporary media, from David Lynch’s films to comics & animation. Surrealists taught us to take our dreams with a layer of seriousness and meaning; they showed us the social and political power of irrationality; they exquisitely portrayed irrationality separate from insanity, the difference and how it should be perceived, not misconstrued. They waged war against societal norms and defied being labelled “mad”; they gave us insight into a world not understood enough.

They made art to serve a purpose, and in a revolution it ensued.

—ronaish