Modern Surrealism and How it is Used Today
In the “Surrealist Manifesto” (1924) French poet Andre Breton, the founder of the surrealist movement, wrote that surrealism was meant to express the real functioning of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.
Indeed, in actuality, the images created by our subconscious during a dream state may be closer to the truth than the scenes surrounding us in the physical world. As reality is arguably an illusion itself, bringing delusional dreams into literal existence might just be the sanest, most brilliant form of artistic expression yet. Essentially, surrealism upheaves this madness from the depths of our subconscious so that reality dwellers may look upon the spectacle that is the inner workings of the human mind. In this way, surrealism ascends the limitations of our physical reality to prove that there is, in fact, truth in intangible nonsense.
Although the surrealist movement began in the early 1920’s, there has not been an era more suited for surrealism than that in which we are presently living. Lo and behold, the same limitless depths of the internet which have enabled remix culture to thrive are also well suited for inspiring surrealist works of art.
Today visual artists around the world are responding to the endless assemblage of images present on the internet (or essentially, the collective thoughts of mankind accessible via Google) with surreal collages depicting unconventional scenes of modern day society. Rene Magritte explained this fascination, stating, “Everything we see hides another thing. We always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
To introduce my 'Modern Day Surrealist Lookbook' I plan to start with a contents page of the artists who will be featuring, but also a brief intro to Surrealism to get the viewer in the right frame of mind. From the research I have done selected these words to introduce it:
"The exceptional power of surrealism is manifested in the viewer’s instinctive emotional response to images that use the juxtaposition of the most unlikely symbols to convey the most relatable feelings.
Surrealism can capture the essence of an inexplicable dream, an unidentifiable emotion, or whatever other indescribable by-product of the subconscious an inspired artist might encounter."
For the content of the Lookbook I decided to feature works from my favourite and most popular current surrealist (collage and digital) artists. With an intro spread for each - featuring an introductory paragraph to the artists and links to their sites were I gathered the imagery and also a link to their social media (if applicable), a large scale example of their work, each followed by a spread of two smaller scale examples. This would allow me to apply a consistent grid layout throughout the publication.
Witchoria - Victoria Siemer, also known as Witchoria, is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She works predominantly in the digital realm, creating surreal photo manipulations that reflect her penchant for ennui, existential crisis, and heartbreak. Her work has been featured in a variety of digital publications including Wired, Juxtapoz, Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, and Business Insider. She graduated from SUNY Buffalo with a BFA in Communication Design.
Trash Riot - Trash Riot is a prolific, science-fiction/retro-futuristic photo collage artist who makes his work available through Red Bubble (which sells them as posters, postcards, shirts, etc). His work is extremely vivid and digital while simultaneously juxtaposing iconic old-fashioned archetypes and images.
The Daily Splice - Slicing & Splicing! All work is handmade and created using London's free magazines. I take images out of context and splice them together - Created by Adam Hale
Melinda Gibson - "I am interested in the changing perspectives of the photographic medium, how images are viewed and understood through the technological advances in photography and the help and hindrances this begins forth into our contemporary culture."
Eugenia Loli - Collage artist Eugenia Loli uses photography scanned from vintage magazines and science publications to create bizarre visual narratives that borrow from aspects of pop art, dada, and traditional surrealism. Loli’s background is almost as diverse as the imagery she employs, having been born in Greece and living in Germany and the UK before settling in California.
No comments:
Post a Comment