tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28072093558021478872024-03-03T16:26:19.875-08:00THE SPACE THAT REMAINSSURREALISM ON THE MARGINSLATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-53823776313559845222024-02-09T14:13:00.000-08:002024-02-09T14:13:11.732-08:00Reposting: Surrealism Against War - Ceasefire Now!<p> I decided to repost Jay Blackwood's short, but to the point, and wholly valid, call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Jay posted this in November, what has changed, except that things have got worse and politicians have revealed a lack od spine and a lack of principle?</p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">Surrealism Against War - Ceasefire Now!</h3><p><br /></p><p>https://rustofdreams.blogspot.com/2023/11/surrealism-against-war-ceasefire-now.html?fbclid=IwAR3fjBEWSkpJlZlxG3hhSK5WYS_9YEOU9KA7XXPmQWjR5cTh4Z7g__fLxd0</p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-88984227375709961402023-12-06T12:41:00.000-08:002023-12-06T12:41:31.719-08:00POEM UNLOST (FRAGMENTA)<p> I don't usually explain my poems, you may not understand them, but the explanation is almost always redundant. However, this is one of the odd ones out.</p><p>Years ago I got rid of all my early work, deliberately losing at least ten years of poems and then, by accident, lost some more. The other week, thinking back on some of these poems, I thought that, perhaps, I could recover something in a slightly less ghoulish way than Dante Gabriel Rossetti recovered his poems from Lizzie Siddal's grave. I found words and phrases and lines bubble up, but mixed with my concern over the increasingly psychotic nature of the public realm. I jotted as much as possible down and then, unexpectedly had a crisis in my health that nearly killed me. </p><p>A week later, at home I assembled the fragments in some kind of order. The word 'unlost' rang a bell and I think that a translator of Paul Celan used it, but am at this time unsure. It seemed better than 'rediscovered'. Anyway, there are fragments here of very old work, held together by faulty memory along with fresh yammerings of an uneasy mind. You may still not understand this poem, but that is the context.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Poem Unlost (Fragmenta)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Between these parallel lines</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I can neither live nor breathe</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The squeezed space</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Matters not</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The crossing is infinite</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Alternations of black and white light</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> *</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Great Pearl-of-Light</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fallen</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">fallen</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Into the Place-of-Shells</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And our burning world</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Locked in a skull</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> *</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Opacity</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your hidden face</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your lost face</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gone and gone</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the frazzled glass</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Broken</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> *</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The great evil of little men</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Grotesque dazzle</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of the burning world</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Broken</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> * </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Terrae of lost words</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Within submergence and abandonment</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The long crawl to terrestrial paradise</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And the cthonic urge</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where the tongue is a desert </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-51433857994876970102023-11-19T08:15:00.000-08:002023-11-19T08:15:53.943-08:00TWO MANIFESTATIONS OF 'BRITISH SURREALISM'<p> <span style="font-family: times;">I recently paid a visit to the Victoria Gallery in Bath to see the exhibition "<span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;">When Dreams Confront Reality: Surrealism in Britain". ( </span><span style="color: #171c1c;">https://www.victoriagal.org.uk/event/when-dreams-confront-reality-surrealism-britain) </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;">The works are mostly from the collection of the late Jeffrey Sherwin, a doctor and local tory politician in Leeds, so when the exhibition blurb claims that one will "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span>Experience the magical visions of Surrealism – but from an unusual perspective" that may well be true.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9MXRDWxX8YlqtNAAHWkQmUP8L1MBd2JXJSU4wJWt-AdlNAAW_tefOJbna7QjurJDFSPWheGc7To4q3MgAtRDkKnEO4tgZHNIjNA35zx17O7RCBqx3wvF37lBDpfT-jjuFsd-gxFXc6ev2Z7gdYrtAyX5nRoRWtcA9PlupI22w35Wb-haxSFEf9ELuxJ0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="1700" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9MXRDWxX8YlqtNAAHWkQmUP8L1MBd2JXJSU4wJWt-AdlNAAW_tefOJbna7QjurJDFSPWheGc7To4q3MgAtRDkKnEO4tgZHNIjNA35zx17O7RCBqx3wvF37lBDpfT-jjuFsd-gxFXc6ev2Z7gdYrtAyX5nRoRWtcA9PlupI22w35Wb-haxSFEf9ELuxJ0" width="320" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;">Some of the works are indeed excellent, but the general feel of the exhibition is of nostalgia for the 30s, a surrealism largely shorn of its greater purpose, those nasty men, Breton and Mesens demanding poor artists to be more than whimsical fantasists. It is often as challenging as a nice cup of tea. (Such as that held by the figure in F.E. McWilliams' rather spiffing sculpture, above).</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;">This cosy impression of the first half of the show is rather punctured by an awareness of the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and a small leaflet on display seemed horribly contemporary:</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2Y-StLGoZGf-EaK6SWOz8b5aEtwS6qV38z2ZTXUAiL1LqvWsl0bL09hsuA1B-nRPZEkIOeqRSQIQd3iscJz4bCO2y3mmdgKTsBEy6AxN8r0XDnjUZkFWTKl94UBp5gXh7lZfLnS-55O_EqCHibDhBWG9brgnRgbQPKn9WSBqGeHdkHhGK4T0dviH-xq4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="526" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2Y-StLGoZGf-EaK6SWOz8b5aEtwS6qV38z2ZTXUAiL1LqvWsl0bL09hsuA1B-nRPZEkIOeqRSQIQd3iscJz4bCO2y3mmdgKTsBEy6AxN8r0XDnjUZkFWTKl94UBp5gXh7lZfLnS-55O_EqCHibDhBWG9brgnRgbQPKn9WSBqGeHdkHhGK4T0dviH-xq4" width="240" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;">The second half of the show had for me a note of personal nostalgia, with works by Conroy Maddox, Toni del Renzio and Tony Earnshaw, all of whom were friends. Toni del Renzio even joined the London Surrealist Group in 2005, making him by far the oldest member at 90, the youngest at that time being 16! The home video of Sherwin's visit to Conroy's flat was oddly familiar, very much like my own visit, seeing some of the same things. It also featured both Toni and Tony and Conroy's partner, Des Mogg. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;">I don't want to overdo this impression of something old, warm and comfy, several works, back in the day, provoked severe reactions and demands that they should be destroyed, presumably from Daily Mail readers or their equivalent, and plenty of them still have a subversive charge and the power to disconcert, but the context of this exhibition gave me the sense that they'd been wrapped in cotton wool, the sharp edges all blunted. It's all rather <i>nice</i>...even when a tad naughty (Conroy's nuns etc.) </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;">At the same time that surrealism's past has been evoked in Bath, in Lancaster a possible future of surrealism has appeared in the form of the Lancaster Surrealist Group and their magazine "Vile Bird". <br /><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #171c1c; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsrGoUsiSJsWG-p558DIhCFXKGy17vRwHhA6IYVTix66JHhCkcxbgBvFNwdEg1nUxW5RuOvxy3t13QcGQdqNBeWEXlngIBy-piZYotnzGQ656wx1tIs9pxNGQSKuavbKrjiNlZowr3mF_mMW6Zq1NLCF3-tubcOviT6M1diE716nyY_V_g1TS_gv2VzOI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="768" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsrGoUsiSJsWG-p558DIhCFXKGy17vRwHhA6IYVTix66JHhCkcxbgBvFNwdEg1nUxW5RuOvxy3t13QcGQdqNBeWEXlngIBy-piZYotnzGQ656wx1tIs9pxNGQSKuavbKrjiNlZowr3mF_mMW6Zq1NLCF3-tubcOviT6M1diE716nyY_V_g1TS_gv2VzOI" width="168" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #171c1c;">https://lancastersurrealistgroup.wordpress.com/</span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #171c1c;"> The group developed, as far as I can make out, from student societies at Lancaster University and improbable amounts of Pinot Grigio, somehow developed into an understanding of surrealism and thus to self-identify as surrealists and seek the surrealist adventure in the streets of Lancaster. The magazine is already sold out, although I think one might get electronic copies if you ask nicely.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span>When somebody is drawn to the orbit of surrealism, they are not there as a subordinate to the elders* of the movement, such a hierarchy is properly anathema and we meet on an equal footing. Caution on both sides is understandable, "Oh, I'm a surrealist" can mean so many things to different people and have very little to do with surrealism, so i</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;">t's a bit premature to get </span><i style="color: #171c1c;">too </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;">excited about a new group, although any new manifestation is more than welcome, and potentially something to get excited about. However, Vile Bird attracted a number of contributors outside the group, including myself, people who felt this is a worthwhile venture that we can support with some enthusiasm. I have seen so much that is so much worse than what the Lancaster group has manifested so far, and if I find that manifestation still not wholly matured or realised, I can't condescend (no, I really can't! let me finish!) given my own earliest attempts at surrealist activity and the number of people who were, nevertheless, willing to take me seriously.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;">My point is that we have here an activity in its early stages and that has already shown some real awareness of what surrealism is, has managed to get out there and relate to other surrealists, demonstrated knowledge and understanding and that is all rather exciting. I do feel the need to ring a note of caution, it is a new activity and in many ways still unproven and undeveloped, but their sense of rebellion is strong and their activity is growing. Given that I sometimes tend to get lost in deep deliberation on theoretical matters, I also find it refreshing to see a manifestation of surrealism that's fun! </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #171c1c;"><span style="font-family: times;">* Sorry, we don't have elders!</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-89680972719032428942023-10-28T13:05:00.000-07:002023-10-28T13:05:22.005-07:00Accepting Or Refusing Atrocity<p> This seems to be quite difficult to write, not least because each time I consider it, I become so overwhelmed by a fiercely depressive mood, but mostly because it should be so easy as to not require explanation and not even need to be said, it should be obvious to all but the most warped psychopaths, but genocide is always wrong, whoever commits it.</p><p>The context is, of course, the conflict between Israel and Palestine and it fills the news as well as online comment like a baleful cloud, obscuring all reasonable debate. No doubt much of this is down to cowardice, if Israel's bombing of Gaza were committed by any other country, it would be condemned on all sides of the Commons for instance, but the utter spinelessness of our political leaders on this matter leaves me in no doubt that they are afraid to stick to anything resembling a principle.</p><p>While really putting yourself out there, taking real risks to life and limb does take great courage, simply speaking up against genocide,wherever it occurs, while at a safe distance from the action, should be a simple matter of decency. It's simple at this level, denounce the atrocities of Hamas, denounce the retaliations of the Israeli military against the citizens of Gaza. But a campaign of intimidation is underway to prevent any such decency prevailing. A friend of mine who has done no more than speak against the revenge killings perpetrated by Israel has been told by at least a couple of people he'd considered friends that they had screen-shot his posts and "passed them on", to whom he has no idea. It's worth pointing out that he is Jewish, something I'd not normally mention with regard to him as it rarely comes up. In any case, he was not intimidated, but understandably found their attitude distasteful and upsetting.</p><p>A more serious case of intimidation occurred with the sacking of Artforum editor David Velasco for publishing an open letter supporting Palestine. The list of signatories of this letter is considerable and frequently eminent. Articles concerning the case can be found here: https://hyperallergic.com/853300/artforum-editor-in-chief-david-velasco-fired-after-gaza-ceasefire-letter/</p><p>and here: https://artreview.com/artforum-sacks-editor-in-chief-david-velasco-following-open-letter-on-palestine/</p><p>and the letter is at this link: https://www.e-flux.com/notes/571447/open-letter-from-the-art-community-to-cultural-organisations</p><p>While there's a very large number of signatories, some apparently went on to have second thoughts: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-world-divided-by-middle-east-petitions-2383877</p><p>I'll return to this in a moment. Not everybody felt so intimidated by the backlash: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67246847</p><p>It's ridiculous, but it seems necessary to mention that criticisms of the actions of the government of Israel is not anti-semitism. I repeat, criticisms of the actions of the government of Israel is NOT anti-semitism. To claim it is is either very stupid or very disingenuous and only serves to create cover for genuine anti-semitism. Let's not doubt that anti-semitism does really exist, it is foul and needs to be exposed, but we should not privilege anti-semitism above other kinds of racism. Both hatred of jews and hatred of arabs is of the same fabric as any other kind of racism, especially in its most extreme and humanity-denying manifestations. The many thousands of people in the streets of London (and, I'm gratified to see, Edinburgh, and no doubt many other cities, are certainly not guilty of jew-hatred, no doubt many are jews.</p><p>I wanted to make a point about that open letter. The very first name on the list of signatories is Nan Goldin, who is, of course, Jewish and many other names, some familiar, some not so, are also obviously Jewish. I refuse to believe that they are all somehow not sufficiently Jewish, or "self-hating jews" - surely they must be sufficiently self-aware to know that some people will condemn them for what is, after all, primarily a call to our common humanity?</p><p>Perhaps it would have been wise to include a condemnation of Hamas in that letter, make it clear that Hamas is not the whole of the Palestinian people, especially the children who, we are told make up a half of the population of Gaza. Similarly, the murderous, far-right government of Netanyahu is not all of Israel, far less all jews. (It isn't so long since Netanyahu was regarded as a dangerous extremist everywhere, somebody who should never be allowed anywhere near power.) But regarding Bibi Netanyahu and Hamas, read this article in Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-brief-history-of-the-netanyahu-hamas-alliance/0000018b-47d9-d242-abef-57ff1be90000</p><p>I do realise that finding any kind of real solution in the Middle East is very difficult, very complex and fraught with all sorts of problems that are monstrously intractable. There's hatred and a complete lack of trust on both sides. I don't have any answers, except for one. that both sides remember the other is also human and that the only alternatives to finding a reasoned and reasonable solution are either perpetual war or that one side or the other is wholly exterminated, which to any remotely normal person should be unthinkable.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPkfXb8f3BPyj7MrByQyH6pXIHE5QklMRhgL7MpGFiJ_EFsGN0wq1pUFod3PPY9BPXr_geI3JsBPkqzFUcIvg0AcBnv1TSXAWVakmihZ4qnAaR3oajYr9G8uGjyw2mnpbryxe5eL4-to36O7gQ4DshxKIrDLAPeU8leHOBF-QODb2Ktx9lUcnIYDw_uTk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2019" data-original-width="2048" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiPkfXb8f3BPyj7MrByQyH6pXIHE5QklMRhgL7MpGFiJ_EFsGN0wq1pUFod3PPY9BPXr_geI3JsBPkqzFUcIvg0AcBnv1TSXAWVakmihZ4qnAaR3oajYr9G8uGjyw2mnpbryxe5eL4-to36O7gQ4DshxKIrDLAPeU8leHOBF-QODb2Ktx9lUcnIYDw_uTk=w376-h348" width="376" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>(Image: Peter Kennard)<br /><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-12860514865831932482023-05-12T14:26:00.000-07:002023-05-12T14:26:02.167-07:00Coming Home To Painting<p> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This might not mean a huge amount to a lot of people, but I am starting a new painting and it is actually the second largest painting I have ever made. I only realised this the other day when I set the stretchers against what had previously been my second largest painting and it was larger by a few inches than the old work. Now, some people might wonder about how large this massive work may be and will probably be a bit disappointed to learn it is 3ft x 4ft, 36"x48" or roughly 91 x 122 cm. This isn't huge for many people and for some, used to working on a large scale, even diminutive.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">However, for me it means a lot. I gave up painting in oils in 1992, when I seemed to be overwhelmed with anxiety and a kind of revulsion towards my painting every time I set foot in the studio. I could only outpace this anxiety by drawing extremely rapidly and more or less automatically. So my work for the rest of the decade, and into the early years of the 21st century were, typically, A1 sized drawings, usually on very smooth hot-pressed paper, in pencil and occasional touches of wax crayon. (See here for a couple of not wholly typical examples:http://stuartinman.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-drawings-i.html)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For several years I did very little drawing, focusing on photography, (My photography Flickr page is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartinman/) and while I found the pursuit of the strange images discovered in the streets to be well worth the effort, I was not firing on all creative cylinders while I was not painting and drawing. Then I was able to retire and move to Wiltshire with Jane and suddenly had a decent studio space for the first time in many years. Within a few weeks I had my space assembled and bought a couple of canvases and made a start.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In fact, I made a number of false starts. Fortunately, I didn't feel that old anxiety, and kept plugging on. After a few weeks I decided that I needed to come to terms with this new (for me), but ancient landscape and, by degrees, started to become a landscape painter. If I had any qualms, it was that the majority of these new works could not, in any way, be called surrealist. I have given over such a large part of my life to the surrealist vision, this seemed odd, and maybe even odder, I wasn't that bothered. I don't mean that I had dropped surrealist ideas, just that they were at most in the background of the new works, if at all, and mostly not.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I started to develop a new technique for myself, starting in acrylic, many washes over a drawing, reasserting the drawing, spattering and dripping the paint, sealing it with acrylic medium, then repeating the process, then at some point switching to oil paint. Sometimes the whole work would become so hopeless that I'd overpaint it with something else. I made a series of small paintings based on drawings from the 80s, which at least were more imagination-based, and a new version of a painting from the same period that I had sold, it is of a staircase in the house I lived in back in the late 70s, in Bloomsbury. So, it was already a memory painting back then, now, a memory of a memory. I started to play with the forms just a little, letting them not quite work. Instead of correcting proportions, just letting them be awkward and difficult to navigate, as places in a dream or a memory can be, but apparently crisp and sharply outlined, at least in part.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The new work is also a memory painting and set in Bloomsbury. I originally thought of setting it in Little Russell Street, where I lived,, but because I had conceived it, not only as something very personal around my own memories, but as a sort of homage to Balthus' great canvas <span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">Passage du Commerce-Saint-André</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">and the view into Bury Place from Gilbert Place (where Austin Spare had once lived) was closer in aspect to the Parisian scene. (Near here: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=72884&WINID=1683926619366)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">So, I have sized and primed the canvas and now need to wait a week or two before starting, letting the priming cure thoroughly. (For those interested in such things, I am using a casein priming, which I have used a couple of times on small works.) I'm expecting the painting to take months, at the very least, probably letting each layer settle down possibly revising it for years while undertaking any number of new works as well as revising older ones. I have found that very few works simply feel finished and in adding new layers I can add to the emotional and perceptive weight of the painting as well as developing it more intellectually, it is a matter of seeing where to take it, whether a matter of slight adjustments, major revision or complete reinvention.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">I have not posted any of my work for a very long time, but promise to do so in future, the lack of it really isn't down to shyness, but mostly the unfinished nature of most of it. Time for that to change?</span></span></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-58927813835443189272023-05-10T06:34:00.000-07:002023-05-10T06:34:01.993-07:00Two More Reviews: Oystercatcher #20 and 'Patastrophe! #7<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3sMwcCDNaNRrMlZT3NvigQS4Qpdykenj84mg-nucU2qL5VmwGZf-ZKuJQqBt6VGMsBdhGZn7m11iS32Kb8JsMR7bNXp5urtG8CE88AUb7xbCIsTWLoUU7e4cIkxGBx-A6-jp4aSy85jKZoJyvnjvOR471SvjlcP68tN8CSRo8R1KcBqOyFk1E2r6h" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1061" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3sMwcCDNaNRrMlZT3NvigQS4Qpdykenj84mg-nucU2qL5VmwGZf-ZKuJQqBt6VGMsBdhGZn7m11iS32Kb8JsMR7bNXp5urtG8CE88AUb7xbCIsTWLoUU7e4cIkxGBx-A6-jp4aSy85jKZoJyvnjvOR471SvjlcP68tN8CSRo8R1KcBqOyFk1E2r6h=w236-h296" width="236" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh2MZI6HzeVahURcwL01bDbbaxdhbj6qKKvNeVS0eInbdvCNcN2BNOZoBkRFKRrm1xdZ7UuISNiTm8MdW4DHrfvoV84lGWEmYHf07YcfBjV5nX1rkdWWVwsNCaNFEQ-b24munjkQ6syXtzpXyXfAM3zF_zRhVf0Igxc7gIH5pV4HFRSPL8v6Sz3Y-zu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="600" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh2MZI6HzeVahURcwL01bDbbaxdhbj6qKKvNeVS0eInbdvCNcN2BNOZoBkRFKRrm1xdZ7UuISNiTm8MdW4DHrfvoV84lGWEmYHf07YcfBjV5nX1rkdWWVwsNCaNFEQ-b24munjkQ6syXtzpXyXfAM3zF_zRhVf0Igxc7gIH5pV4HFRSPL8v6Sz3Y-zu=w253-h294" width="253" /><br /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>I received two new magazines in one week and, very superficially, they looked oddly similar, although they are quite different in many ways and both maybe quite unique.</p><p>The Oystercatcher is the brainchild, or lovechild of Ron Sakolsky and he produces it every year, officially on the First of May. 2023 brings us up to issue 20 and I really hope he continues for many more years because it is very worthwhile. Ron situates The Oystercatcher fairly and squarely within the contemporary surrealist movement and from an avowedly anarchist perspective. It contains rants, reviews and more considered articles by Joel Gayraud, Penelope Rosemont and others. There are illustrations by Janice Hathaway, Rik Lina, Steven Cline, Guy Girard and others, including a very small one by John Welson.</p><p>Welson also makes an appearance in 'Patastrophe!, a rather more significant one, taking up a whole page., along with other surrealist luminaries including Doug Campbell, Jay Blackwood and John Richardson (who also appears in Oystercatcher, so I'm sure I could have made a better segue...never mind...)</p><p>'Patastrophe! is the journal/zine of Surrealerpool, which is a sort of meeting point for varied surrealists, 'pataphysicians and others, and I must admit I originally approached it with some doubts as to what it was intended to be. Anybody who knows me or has followed this blog will know I can get a bit exercised at stuff that purports to represent surrealism but fails to understand where surrealism is coming from in any way. My feeling is that 'Patastrophe! has very little interest in representing itself as some kind of official surrealist publication and intends to remain somewhat eclectic and quite fun. It sometimes, but not always, does this well. As an interface between surrealism, 'pataphysics and general weirdness it works well enough, with some high points and few low points too. It is well produced and illustrated, occasionally suffering from a what seems to me at any rate to be a self-conscious eccentricity that grates a bit. For instance, the article "Clarimonde - A Lost Weimar Film?" is so very obviously nothing of the kind, it feels a little embarrassing in its pretence. If one is going to write a spoof, one needs to be more convincing I think. The supposed film still of Clarimonde doesn't belong to the 1920s, but very obviously shows a modern woman dressed in Goth fashion. They provide a link to the film, (Clarimonde.website) and I have to say that it is, in its own terms, a successful and poetic interpretation of a story by Theophile Gautier, constructed of still photographs, and presumably made on a zero budget.</p><p>Two profile pieces are, by themselves, sufficient to make the purchase of this issue worthwhile as far as I'm concerned, one on Arthur Adamov, absurdist playwright and occasional participant in surrealism, and Jean Ferry, an important but too little known surrealist.</p><p>There's a good deal to be gleaned from both publications, I was fascinated by Abigail Susik's interview with the anarchist Ben Morea in Oystercatcher. It is in fact Part 2, the first part published a year ago and I'd forgotten, so obviously I need to look at the previous issue. Abigail's presence is felt in a review of "Resurgence! Jonathan leake, Radical Surrealism and the Resurgence Youth Movement 1964-1967" edited by Abigail Susik and published by the Eberhardt Press. I have my copy, but have not had time to read it yet. The effect is that these two magazines have done quite a lot to keep me busy over the next few weeks as I catch up with my reading, that must be a sign of a good publication, surely?</p><p>Oystercatcher #20 can be obtained from: </p><p>Ron Sakolsky/The Oystercatcher, A-4062 Wren Road,Denman Island, BC Sla-Dai-Aich/Taystayic, Canada V0R 1T0</p><p>email: oystercatcher@uniserve.com</p><p>'Patastrophe! #7 can be obtained from:</p><p>surrealerpool@gmail.com or from their ebay shop: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/lamoncrans</p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-3546360614296570642023-04-29T03:52:00.002-07:002023-05-01T06:45:27.070-07:00Surrealpolitik by John Schoneboom: A Review<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTRN0VIm53t893A7Jmcs4T9GyuVsiRXnYz1yzg8e2d6mR9qE9H4zXet9dsYmkc-W0KK3mHLgSgysZhZ7XlfoXoSPqEjF48i_FpHld6uZDSb5LVY9_gR_Mg-ewJRcVJbv2W3FkIacxUpfq3esquP7yRu_tMBhADXnhLwCVgik0XL3eJFjbWeVmNDGWy" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="397" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTRN0VIm53t893A7Jmcs4T9GyuVsiRXnYz1yzg8e2d6mR9qE9H4zXet9dsYmkc-W0KK3mHLgSgysZhZ7XlfoXoSPqEjF48i_FpHld6uZDSb5LVY9_gR_Mg-ewJRcVJbv2W3FkIacxUpfq3esquP7yRu_tMBhADXnhLwCVgik0XL3eJFjbWeVmNDGWy" width="156" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">J<span style="font-family: times;">ohn Schoneboom's new book Surrealpolitik: Surreality and the National Security State is by turns a frustrating, occasionally annoying, sometimes fascinating and, in concept at least, a quite necessary book, but not, to my mind, the book it should have been. Let's break this down slightly.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Frustrating because, although Schoneboom is clearly advocating a surrealist "mode of enquiry", and he obviously has <i>some</i> understanding of surrealism, he nevertheless falls short of developing this thesis into something really concrete. Rather, he tends to describe the "National Security State" in terms of dream, fascism and antifascism, paranoia, black humour, despite giving examples of surrealist and pre-surrealist writing, he ends in each case by suggesting that a surrealist mode of enquiry could be fruitful.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Annoying, partly because he sometimes seems to chant "National Security State" and "surrealist mode of enquiry" like mantras, which I must admit I find a bit irritating. He also seems at times to be rather uncertain as to who the surrealists are, he names Boris Vian as a surrealist for instance. As far as I know, Vian never participated in surrealist activities and never subscribed to specifically surrealist ideas. He was, of course, a prominent member of OuLiPo, which does have some connections with surrealism at a distance, but simply can't be thought of as a surrealist group. See below for a further discussion of this problematic attitude.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Fascinating because Schoneboom provides a lens to view to contemporary political world that exposes its meanness and monstrosity and the obscuration of truth and he is often a lively and cogent commentator.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Necessary because surrealists should be writing books like this and getting them out into the world. They should be, but often are not. I include myself in this accusation. My excuse is a lack of access to publishing beyond the surrealist echo chamber, whatever its faults, Surrealpolitik addresses, if not quite the world, at least a broader public than most surrealist publications can achieve, and I am increasingly convinced that this is essential for our future. It often seems to me, not that surrealism has become too inward-looking so much as too inward-publishing and discussing, the echo-chamber I mentioned earlier.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Schoneboom seems to waver between quite a good understanding of who and what is surrealist and a confusion that depends far more on the critics (academic or otherwise) than on the surrealists themselves:</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-family: times; font-size: medium;">"My reference to the term "surrealism" is not intended to be limited specifically to Andre Breton's historical movement and its ever-shifting (and usually dwindling) formal membership. Rather, proceeding from the notion that "a state of mind survives" the surrealist school (Blanchot 1995 [1949], p. 85), I'm trying to locate an affinity within a more generously defined, yet still coherent, set of ideas and practices, predominantly originating in surrealist thinking but inclusive of related ideas from the movement's heirs, precursors, renegades, critics, competitors, and usurpers." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">(http://www.surrealpolitik.org/posts/view/22) Accessed 28/4/23</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">He often discusses writers like Conrad or Chesterton at greater length than he does Breton or Aragon and apparently conflates Baudrillard's 'hyperreality' with surreality:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">"<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);">For example, when Jean Baudrillard describes a hyperreality that "can no longer dream" because images have become indistinguishable from the real "as though things had swallowed their own mirrors" (Baudrillard 2008, p. 4), one can, without going so far as to theorize a grand unified neo-surrealism, identify a certain specular resonance with Louis Aragon's statement in </span><em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A Wave of Dreams</em><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);">, that "[t]he only way to look at Man is as the victim of his mirrors." (2010 [1924]). (Ibid)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">I also find Schoneboom's range of surrealist references oddly narrow. I found ten surrealists in a bibliography that stretches over 30 pages, and only arrived at that number by including Bataille, who although not actually a surrealist as such, did at least participate at times and helped define the surrealist spirit. He refers to Terry Gilliam (his film Brazil) but not Jan Svankmajer, who is both surrealist and relevant to Schoneboom's arguments, but as he considers the surrealist movement a thing of the past, which, of course, it is not. Now, one might feel inclined to criticise the state of the surrealist movement, many do, including surrealists, but it has never ceased to exist, despite as Breton remarked, 'gravediggers' announcing the death of surrealism almost as soon as the Manifesto of Surrealism was published.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">Schoneboom believes that "But isn't surrealism dead? Yes and no. Certainly the original movement rose, sustained itself, and fell in close parallel with the original fascist movement" (Schoneboom, 2022. P.6.) and he speaks "therefore not of resuscitating the exquisite surrealist corpse, but of adapting some of its surviving virtues in order to inform a particularly appropriate way of interrogating the incongruities and delusions of our present political condition." (Ibid. p.6). So here's the problem, claiming that the surrealist movement in non-existent is, quite simply wrong, he doesn't know what he is talking about at this point. He could claim that the present surrealist movement either lacks its historical prestige, or a cogent position on the problems of our time, or even many great artists, and one could argue about this, but he either chooses to ignore the existence of a contemporary surrealist movement that exist in continuity with the historical movement (which is to say, not a half-arsed revivalism) or he is simply ignorant.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">Another problem is that although Schoneboom sets out his chapter headings with bold surrealist themes such as dreams, paranoia and black humour, much of the content appears to derive from postmodernism, which he believes "...can fairly be described as a descendent of surrealism, with both endeavours engaged principally in the disruption of semiotic systems." (Ibid. P.6) and goes on: "One suggested term for a post-postmodernist surrealism-plus-simulacra is hyper-surrealism....which has a certain appeal but may not add anything that wasn't already there. Ultimately, of course, the label is not as important as what's in the can." (Ibid. P.6) On that last point a least, I can agree, but the rest of it is pointless fluff.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4OQCasHzXBsA6SqwLklNT_sH2FLBzpc2h0XaEInslDE3wxJsaMbQyqUjjsOiedepuBXFh6XEJeMokwr2j5WmWxZyeT-YQcvOknALPEkx4zD0JQS_Rze3Jamnd9jYv6qu947YVqDPS82Uq0p6NtZohOet-ExBfM2JKhOyrJ1C8Ls-xuB6T_rcHlfcE/s4608/_DSC0006.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4608" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4OQCasHzXBsA6SqwLklNT_sH2FLBzpc2h0XaEInslDE3wxJsaMbQyqUjjsOiedepuBXFh6XEJeMokwr2j5WmWxZyeT-YQcvOknALPEkx4zD0JQS_Rze3Jamnd9jYv6qu947YVqDPS82Uq0p6NtZohOet-ExBfM2JKhOyrJ1C8Ls-xuB6T_rcHlfcE/s320/_DSC0006.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);"><br /></span></span></div>It's this level of misconception that holds the book back, take out all references to surrealism and "a surrealist mode of enquiry" and you have almost the same book, a bit shorter, giving a more-or-less postmodern account of the "national security state". The latter seems to be his equivalent of the Spectacle or of the coming together of surveillance-fascism-capitalism. I'd have thought that enlarging on Debord's concept of the Spectacle would have been very relevant to Schoneboom's argument, but Debord does not appear in his bibliography and Vaneigem only as the author of the utterly wretched "Cavalier History of Surrealism" and the situationists have a stronger relationship to surrealism than most of the authors discussed in this book, despite their somewhat fractious attitude to surrealism back in the day. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">I hope I have conveyed my sense of this book being, above all, a missed opportunity. It's not that it should be an entirely surrealist account of the political problems that beset us (although, actually, why not?) but I do think that when one employs the word 'surrealism' it should mean surrealism and not something close to its opposite. (Postmodernism might be described as, in <i>some</i> senses as a descendent of surrealism, but, for better or worse, an illegitimate one, not only the wrong side of the blanket, but a different blanket!) By all means employ surrealist terms and concepts, but don't relabel non-surrealist concepts as surrealist. By all means go beyond the strict purview of the surrealist movement, but be clear about it, such confusionism helps nobody.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">I would also suggest that although his chapter headings reflect areas of surrealist concern, they are very far from comprehensive. The ones I have mentioned, dream, paranoia and black humour are accompanied by anti-fascism and 'spectacular crime'. I have no issue with any of these, but suggest that, for a possible future project on might add desire, automatism, dialectic, analogy, wandering, atopia - I could go on, but all of these add both to an appreciation of both the surrealist view of daily life and of the bigger political picture. The National Security State is indeed oppressive and needs to be combatted, both critically and practically, but it is only one facet of a bigger problem which is why I mentioned both The Spectacle and Capitalism and all are ways in which corporations and the state come together, the very definition of fascism given by Mussolini.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">Perhaps this somewhat half-arsed book can provide sufficient provocation to help develop a renewed critique from the surrealists and their allies. Anybody who reads this review should be in no doubt that it is greatly needed. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">The great thing about blog entries is that they can remain a bit rough and, if necessary, can be revised and polished later. The less good thing can be that the revision and polish can be a consequence of reactions and criticisms of the original article, and that can be sometimes sadly lacking. I hope that I might have cause to revise this, or add comments...let's see.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">References:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">Schoneboom, John (2022) SURREALPOLITIK: Surreality and the National Security State. Wincester UK and Washington USA. Zero Books.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;">Surrealpolitik website @ surrealpolitik.org</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjKHPUeQx9wiruTr3oWfXyaojbPo0WTfxGqc-H4fNP-ur1l1JoqNMLTtAz_gx8JJ0-oabcpgONJEp4ck9ylTKndMnB2wRwDtewpD5kaaL5ZXEXPwUGbBRH-4jVMC9T-oH2ew0_oO4QLvzdOjRzc3-Rr3L8oI2yTLO9c5F7r0CfGVvuvHCPpZNIlRA/s4272/The%20Clock%20of%20Eternity.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2760" data-original-width="4272" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjKHPUeQx9wiruTr3oWfXyaojbPo0WTfxGqc-H4fNP-ur1l1JoqNMLTtAz_gx8JJ0-oabcpgONJEp4ck9ylTKndMnB2wRwDtewpD5kaaL5ZXEXPwUGbBRH-4jVMC9T-oH2ew0_oO4QLvzdOjRzc3-Rr3L8oI2yTLO9c5F7r0CfGVvuvHCPpZNIlRA/w422-h282/The%20Clock%20of%20Eternity.jpg" width="422" /></a></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></span></div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-7242833208114396922023-03-31T14:32:00.002-07:002023-04-01T07:18:03.180-07:00Reality, Simulation and Time<p>Every now and then I seem to manage to write something that makes some kind of sense and also seems rather well put...those times are too few and far between. A friend posted something about a theory about our universe being a simulation. This sort of thing is quite fashionable, of course, and versions stretch between post-modern theory to crazed conspiracies from people who took the Matrix films a bit too seriously. </p><p>Another post was concerning time being an illusion. I am aware that the physicist Julian Barbour has called time a "well-founded illusion" which points out that to call time an illusion does not even remotely do away with time (an interview with Barbour records that he arrived for the interview late!) but the nature of time, and of reality, are, nevertheless in question.</p><p>Needless to say, I don't have the answers, but I have been asking some of the questions for sometime. Anyway, here was my response, which I think with this bit of contextual explanation, stands alone quite...not badly...</p><p><span style="font-family: times;"> "<span style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">The thing is, except for the nutters who believe we are in the Matrix, run by shape-shifting lizards (who, oddly enough, turn out to be Jewish) while inside the hollow earth, when we are told that time is an illusion or similar, we have to attend carefully what that really means.</span></span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: times;">At some level, EVERYTHING is an illusion because we see it at a particular scale and according to our sense organs and the way our brain interprets the data.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: times;">In the case of time, it simply can't be dismissed as an illusion because it is both real and a number of illusions, depending on what you are referring to.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: times;">The imposition of quantitative time as qualitative time is the tyranny and that is what capitalism does. The revolt against clock time doesn't destroy time, but can liberate us into genuinely lived, qualitative time."</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Here's another perspective:</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2022/02/25/truth-isnt-always-the-best-option-comic/</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-74982932697103802652023-03-26T14:55:00.000-07:002023-03-26T14:55:09.805-07:00WHAT CAN BE DONE IN 2023?<p> Regard this as an informal enquiry, as a stimulus to thought and action. In 2023 we are only one year away from the centenary of the publication of The Manifesto of Surrealism. For various people surrealism is a great success, an abject failure, a revolutionary project run into the sandbanks of art, an art or a literary movement, a continuing revolution beneath the surface of life. Most definitions see surrealism from one corner only, so, for art historians, who often seem to dominate the recording and interpretation of surrealism, see it as an art movement, still relevant or not, depending on their personal agenda, and so on. Very often, what the scholars write about has very little to do with anything surrealism has ever been or indeed is. </p><p>Surrealists have always defined surrealism as beyond art and literature, also beyond politics and philosophy, although it has been active in all these realms. Many current surrealists do seem content to paint and write and play some games and I don't want to dismiss these activities, it would be hypocritical for me when I have very happily rediscovered painting in the last couple of years, and wouldn't even categorise much of what I produce as 'surrealist' at present. (But I hope I can say "watch this space...").</p><p> I am deliberately trying not to over-formulate my questions at this point, but I hope I'm clear that I don't want us to be helpless at this critical time, a time in which we may perhaps already be doomed, given that governments and corporations are recklessly slow in acknowledging the environmental crisis, the political crises everywhere around us and are in any case complicit to varying extents with the worst aspects of these factors. Disaster Capitalism may destroy us all.</p><p>So my question is, what should and can surrealists be doing at this present time that is not simply making pictures and writing poems? What can we do that might make some impact on the world? Can we justify not trying to make that impact at a time when the far right threaten the world to a greater extent than any time since the 1940s? </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpVxnnBZhE8fwpGjieujmHDJ6sc5IDvxJxFR-Qt822Iod7kRHmxwCiGq2F-BKrUYIiyBgcgVdr6097vFNSvUEQHxxdgnWOvyzVvHgfC8xSehMrsfIRJwRCGv3PWvjtGyJsK8QvUprZPYigqzWU9ZGYNyhOGSGr9OkvvMGUAzqBSeeAIkH7xQfMOWX/s4592/_1130631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3448" data-original-width="4592" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpVxnnBZhE8fwpGjieujmHDJ6sc5IDvxJxFR-Qt822Iod7kRHmxwCiGq2F-BKrUYIiyBgcgVdr6097vFNSvUEQHxxdgnWOvyzVvHgfC8xSehMrsfIRJwRCGv3PWvjtGyJsK8QvUprZPYigqzWU9ZGYNyhOGSGr9OkvvMGUAzqBSeeAIkH7xQfMOWX/s320/_1130631.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-83472249045353256902022-06-19T06:58:00.000-07:002022-06-19T06:58:30.205-07:00Bubu Johnson Consults His Ethical Advisor<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bubu
Johnson Consults His Ethical Advisor<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivKnTnKh246IsaPbrGJ6RAgvQmGJHU80yd54L5pESLB-tYTReeG0FUG19q1CoTLNcmTqhEs40lUx5DY8uuRDceQUSTFW--JUxzzaAg4jjvXuyQ8YtyMOU9YXIITK2rkqwgdzQOXTfqFxOm9lBbgT6xnXOVTPDZLJz111WxbbQAjmUu6a1qg8UP23_r" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="773" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivKnTnKh246IsaPbrGJ6RAgvQmGJHU80yd54L5pESLB-tYTReeG0FUG19q1CoTLNcmTqhEs40lUx5DY8uuRDceQUSTFW--JUxzzaAg4jjvXuyQ8YtyMOU9YXIITK2rkqwgdzQOXTfqFxOm9lBbgT6xnXOVTPDZLJz111WxbbQAjmUu6a1qg8UP23_r" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><br /></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">UBU: Are we right to behave like this? Hornstrumpot, by our
Green Candle, let us consult our conscience. There it is, in this suitcase, all
covered with cobwebs. It is obvious that it’s of no earthly use. (He opens the
suitcase.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enter Conscience as a
big fellow in a nightshirt.) CONSCIENCE : Sir, and so forth, be so good as to
take a few notes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UBU: Excuse me, Sir,
we have no fondness for writing, though we have no doubt that anything you have
to say would be most interesting. And while we’re on the subject, I should like
to know why you have the cheek to appear before us in your shirt? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CONSCIENCE: Sir and so forth, Conscience, like Truth,
usually goes without a shirt. If I have donned one, it is out of respect for
the distinguished audience. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">UBU: As for that, Mr. or Mrs. Conscience, you’re kicking up
a great fuss about nothing. Answer this question rather. Should I do well to
kill Mr. Achras who has had the audacity to come and insult me in my own house?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CONSCIENCE: Sir and
so forth, to return good with evil is unworthy of a civilized man. Mr. Achras
has lodged you, Mr. Achras has received you with open arms, and made you free
of his collection of polyhedra, Mr. Achras, and so forth, is a very fine fellow,
quite harmless; it would be cowardly and so forth, to lull a poor old man
incapable of defending himself.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UBU: Hornstrumpot, my
good conscience, are you quite sure he can’t defend himself? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CONSCIENCE: Absolutely, Sir, so it would be a coward’s trick
to make away with him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UBU : Thank you, Sir,
we shan’t need you any more. Since there’s no risk attached, we shall
assassinate Mr. Achras, and we shall also make a point of consulting you more
frequently, for you know how to give us better advice than we had anticipated.
Now, into the suitcase with you! (He closes it again.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CONSCIENCE: In which
case, Sir, I think we can leave it at that and so forth, for today.<o:p></o:p></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-41695805848254234482022-03-12T13:09:00.002-08:002022-03-12T13:09:30.858-08:00SO YA WANNABE A SURREALIST? UNCOMMERCIAL BREAK<p> SO YA WANNABE A SURREALIST? UNCOMMERCIAL BREAK</p><p>This is a short intermission in my series of articles to point out something I saw quite by chance, which seems appropriate...I was delighted to see a letter by my friend John Richardson that elegantly manages to admonish the commentators on the current Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition for their limited and almost wholly retrospective understanding of the movement, while sketching out the activities and perspectives of the movement as it exists now. </p><p><span style="background-color: #fef9f5; color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Surrealism lives on – and can light up these dark times</span></span></p><div class="dcr-1nupfq9" data-gu-name="headline" style="background-color: #fef9f5; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; grid-area: headline / headline / headline / headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-krkkhw" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1t6t43" style="-webkit-box-pack: justify; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; justify-content: space-between; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1sqs3x6" style="background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(rgb(220, 220, 220), rgb(220, 220, 220) 1px, transparent 1px, transparent 0.25rem); background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px calc(1.75rem + 1px); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: calc(1.75rem + 1px); line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-1sqs3x6" style="background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(rgb(220, 220, 220), rgb(220, 220, 220) 1px, transparent 1px, transparent 0.25rem); background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px calc(1.75rem + 1px); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: calc(1.75rem + 1px); line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">The movement is contemporary, living and relevant, writes</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> </span><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Richardson</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">, and shouldn’t only be seen through a rear-view mirror </span></div><div class="dcr-1sqs3x6" style="background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(rgb(220, 220, 220), rgb(220, 220, 220) 1px, transparent 1px, transparent 0.25rem); background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px calc(1.75rem + 1px); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: calc(1.75rem + 1px); line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="dcr-1sqs3x6" style="background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(rgb(220, 220, 220), rgb(220, 220, 220) 1px, transparent 1px, transparent 0.25rem); background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 1px calc(1.75rem + 1px); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: calc(1.75rem + 1px); line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div><p><br /></p><p>https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/11/surrealism-lives-on-and-can-light-up-these-dark-times?fbclid=IwAR3T_X-PAebfYkTuJ0pWi-Kpliis7KKR5X6mohXg9ATSRCyq5LhLnviPPVg</p><p>Congratulations also go to the Guardian for publishing this letter. All too often they have published appalling things and were complicit in 'crimes against Surrealism' with the BBC in their coverage of the Desire Unbound exhibition, the last Tate extravaganza dedicated to Surrealism. John sets the record straight regarding contemporary Surrealism's continued activity and extraordinary international reach.</p><p>Read it, it's short and to the point and might improve your day.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-63960963092714770802022-03-06T07:51:00.002-08:002022-03-10T13:07:48.713-08:00SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS: THE MEDIA - THE STORY SO FAR<p> <b>SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS: THE MEDIA - PART ONE, THE STORY SO FAR</b></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheAwSEadCrIgJx9t4OBGBSUgINR_odssWTKjA-VklCnrUFgbHVpw6fufqToldT1uipoNbraWN4uyjrRRS9UMyIIZQlFBAZRULy2mvl7yYGc2O5X-QJIB1h6Q3hpRYuLCwXRcIzSMpB-niqtRJmNIN08kGT1o_PIvvfaRRs852MBeFA6uMfXzVshn0g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheAwSEadCrIgJx9t4OBGBSUgINR_odssWTKjA-VklCnrUFgbHVpw6fufqToldT1uipoNbraWN4uyjrRRS9UMyIIZQlFBAZRULy2mvl7yYGc2O5X-QJIB1h6Q3hpRYuLCwXRcIzSMpB-niqtRJmNIN08kGT1o_PIvvfaRRs852MBeFA6uMfXzVshn0g" width="180" /></a></div><br />I thought that a running commentary on the media attention to the exhibition might be instructive and possibly fun. Or possibly not... Most of the journalism is of a rather low order, but some has redeeming features.<p></p><div>Waldemar Januszcak didn't like it:https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/surrealism-beyond-borders-tate-modern-cant-tell-good-art-from-bad-9j3cmrpk3</div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, you can't read the whole article without registering with the Times who want your credit card.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEit3cROmCR1AsQknScBEebMfaSJUwtXTrfk3c7dGwbKuiV3XLfpqhuzTG0Q0G0zX_u8vQNaCBEkbet_Fo5SVIjaVej3qWkjaoX0XiZNwFwDUJeBR6iPOWmLvOCmvJLgONkrgqN0cM5JJqyV8dZYUGD2Ci9Dy79LZRSnqwGb4jUA9I6_0ME_NOcL8go8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="756" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEit3cROmCR1AsQknScBEebMfaSJUwtXTrfk3c7dGwbKuiV3XLfpqhuzTG0Q0G0zX_u8vQNaCBEkbet_Fo5SVIjaVej3qWkjaoX0XiZNwFwDUJeBR6iPOWmLvOCmvJLgONkrgqN0cM5JJqyV8dZYUGD2Ci9Dy79LZRSnqwGb4jUA9I6_0ME_NOcL8go8" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Financial Times was a bit more positive, https://www.ft.com/content/5bdc6907-12f2-4323-bf4b-321d46600598</div><div>and you can read the whole thing, a bit of a mixed bag of clichés, enthusiasm and occasional insights.</div><div><br /></div><div>T<span style="font-family: inherit;">he Grauniad got Adrian Searle to review it, so thankfully we don't have to endure the ignorant posturing of Jonathan Jones, the non-thinking man's non-thinking man. Searle does at least know a fair bit about art:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/feb/22/surrealism-beyond-borders-review-tate-m</span>odern-london-raging-sea-strangeness</div><div><br /></div><div>The Torygraph is surprisingly sympathetic:</div><div> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/surrealism-beyond-borders-tate-modern-review-visionary-celebration/ </div><div>considering that <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="color: #333333;">Too often, museums demonstrate a weakness for repetitive “blockbusters” devoted to the same handful of names. It’s brave and original to try something different. This is Surrealism reanimated, unleashed."</span><br /></span><br /></div><div>The Mail seems to have ignored it so far...a sadly missed opportunity to excoriate 'degenerate art'?</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a second review from the Times! One Rachel Campbell Thompson grasps a little more than Waldemar, it seems and shows a bit more enthusiasm before one hits that paywall:</div><div>https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/surrealism-beyond-borders-review-tate-modern-x7j5xwrgf</div><div>and no bad jokes about fish either...</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Observer's reviewer felt the excitement of the show's bold ambitions, while not knowing quite enough to always be accurate. Still, not a bad review: https://observer.com/2022/01/a-cynics-fairy-tale-on-the-mets-surrealism-beyond-borders/</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's like she almost gets it: <i>"<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a;">The ultimate achievement of this exhibition is its hypnotic offering to the viewer. On my second visit, I couldn’t make it through half the exhibit in two hours. It’s an incredible achievement, exposing many to work they would never have seen otherwise. Walking through these works, we may feel thousands of tiny eyes peering back at us, asking us who holds the baton beyond the corner, and what will we do about it?"</span></i></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and then slightly ruins it by saying:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a;">Exiting the Met, I suddenly wanted to put on riding clothes and go in search of a submarine. I wanted to unlearn anything my art teachers in strange hats ever told me and follow my psychic intuition. I looked at the horses tied up in the park and wondered if they needed a dose of the surreal as badly as I did."</span></i></span></div><div><br /></div><div>If you are fed up with reading, try You Tube for an oddly unsettling - I assume CGI review of reviews: </div><div>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws1ijeXzEPk</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to see how your 'surreal' investments are doing, this slice of meretricious trash may beguile you with its sheer vacuousness:</div><div>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQHbPN_rGGc&t=683s</div><div>(I had not grasped just what a complete idiot Tim Marlow is. I find it rather sad to learn that he is the director of the Design Museum.)</div><div><br /></div><div>There's also a number of reviews of the Met's iteration of the show:</div><div>https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=surrealism+beyond+borders</div><div><br /></div><div>More to come, I expect. Feel free to point out reviews I have missed.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-2612988516241382232022-03-03T14:37:00.000-08:002022-03-03T14:37:02.263-08:00SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS: THE CATALOGUE<p> <b>SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS: THE CATALOGUE</b></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0a9ek7O1HJ2BEQnhP-5tOa0rdx9VLjk4oNWUiIMxnEhonV_SMxcCxBxl04fHNcjBsDudgP7pkJJvCXBbn_rJemIJ41VrJg6NxN5jYtl4Kja-dDKMD6I4r-1-GW5uIU4TZDWDAAFEl_3ukKfmrP6Iukx-zGSOu-xezoTChXnkdzOK94HgU9eoCi-zx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0a9ek7O1HJ2BEQnhP-5tOa0rdx9VLjk4oNWUiIMxnEhonV_SMxcCxBxl04fHNcjBsDudgP7pkJJvCXBbn_rJemIJ41VrJg6NxN5jYtl4Kja-dDKMD6I4r-1-GW5uIU4TZDWDAAFEl_3ukKfmrP6Iukx-zGSOu-xezoTChXnkdzOK94HgU9eoCi-zx=w424-h247" width="424" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's big. It's heavy. It's complex, full of short essays, lots of references. At first it is a bit confusing, so many parts that don't always add up to a single point or refer much to each other, a sort of maze of texts and images, crowding each other out. The catalogue certainly adds a lot of polemical weight to the exhibition, but seems to pull in many different directions. Many important manifestations of Surrealism get rather short shrift in order to fit in the global reach of this exhibition.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have already mentioned in my previous post the very minimal showing of Czech material, I saw two photographs by Styrsky, one by Reichmann, one film by Svankmajer and one painting by Toyen. There's also a very interesting essay by Krzyzstof Fijalkowksi on the 1968 exhibition Princip Slasti. This last usefully contextualises the exhibition in relation to the very important Prague Platform, but also makes clear that the exhibition, while being the ground for new debates between the Paris and Prague surrealists, after a very long enforced silence, was not an exhibition of the Czechs at all, but entirely of the French surrealists. </div><div><br /></div>Krzyzstof is a friend and, while he is best known as a scholar, with an extraordinary track record for translating and editing important, but little known surrealist texts, he also frequently exhibits as a surrealist. There are other writers here who are either active within contemporary Surrealism or are close to and friendly with the movement, such as Abigail Susik. Abigail writes on Surrealism in Chicago, sympathetically and intelligently. There's many other writers who I have never heard of, and this is actually quite heartening, as it means there's a lot of people doing new work on under-researched areas rather than ploughing the same old furrow of Paris between the wars.<div><br /></div><div>The general tone is rather more sympathetic to Surrealism than many exhibitions and many researchers, while their distance to Surrealism usually remains clear. It might be to, once again, point out that this is an exhibition about Surrealism, not a surrealist exhibition, and it is also an art exhibition, not an expression of surrealist endeavour 'in the round'. But a catalogue like this could be an opportunity to set right various shortcomings of the exhibition. For instance, although Octavio Paz does get mentioned a couple of times, there's no real sense of his importance or even of the nature of his writing. One could hardly expect a great deal about him on the walls, but an exhibition about Surrealism needs to look well beyond visual work or fall into the trap of considering it to be an art movement.</div><div><br /></div><div> I could only find one work by Matta in the exhibition, there is a second one in the catalogue, and I wondered if I'd somehow missed a room. Jorge Camacho seems wholly absent, as both artist and as writer, although he gets a mention as mentor to Telemaque and is included in Long Distance, along with many others such as Zeller and Wald, Cogollo and many others.</div><div><br /></div><div>Butoh, a configuration of modern dance, traditional Japanese theatre, Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and Surrealism, is not mentioned, despite the attention to Japanese work here, and, given that this is first and foremost an art exhibition, it is understandable that there's be nothing up on the walls, it is less understandable that an essay on Surrealism in Japan should not at least refer to it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Like with the exhibition itself, I will come back to the catalogue and add to, and revise my comments, but for the moment it is worth saying that this scattershot method of exhibiting is probably necessary in order to display the <i>breadth</i> of work, but inevitable the <i>depth</i> of what is shown suffers. It leaves plenty of scope for many more focused exhibitions and research publications. <br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><p></p></div></div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-62596583167286264912022-03-02T10:07:00.001-08:002022-03-02T12:21:47.525-08:00So Ya Wannabe A Surrealist? Part 3. Surrealsplaining and 'favourite surrealist syndrome'<p> <b>So Ya Wannabe A Surrealist? Part 3. </b></p><p><b>Surrealsplaining and 'favourite surrealist syndrome'</b></p><p><br /></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6X6r6ZLKjNbXfB0g11Saq3sfVsMR0QBvOCiZ0H8dHPB51W_gpW2XKtbSlKcd2x72TFzVdKVHQBulvxLgLbjnz98LJMpwKsQVSI72Ym6fFuIfsbAYEXhgEbuELQQS4Gff9TIRHGvP_jZSqoRfk1X-mePeuTTHmQAOrSLyMDbs3m4CtKzCidQGcyt76" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="445" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6X6r6ZLKjNbXfB0g11Saq3sfVsMR0QBvOCiZ0H8dHPB51W_gpW2XKtbSlKcd2x72TFzVdKVHQBulvxLgLbjnz98LJMpwKsQVSI72Ym6fFuIfsbAYEXhgEbuELQQS4Gff9TIRHGvP_jZSqoRfk1X-mePeuTTHmQAOrSLyMDbs3m4CtKzCidQGcyt76" width="299" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><p>I thought I'd stay in grumpy mode just a little longer... It might actually be my default mode as I shuffle towards old age.</p><p>You are no doubt familiar with a term that has become popular over the last decade or so, 'mansplaining'. And if you are a woman I am sure you don't need me to tell you that it refers to a phenomenon where men all too often feel a need to explain something to a woman who has absolutely no need for that explanation, having a full grasp of the subject and in many cases being an expert on it. There seem to have been several cases where a woman scientist has been 'corrected' on her statements regarding her specialism, the field she actually works in, by a man who has a superficial knowledge of that subject, and whose source turns out to be a book that she wrote! I hate to think of it, but I am pretty sure that, at some point I must have done this myself, although certainly not with the intent to condescend so crassly, but it does happen. At best it is a failure of awareness and self-knowledge. </p><p>Although mansplaining is clearly embedded in sexism and even misogyny, the urge to 'splain would seem to be wider, and possibly even a universal phenomenon. In the wake of mansplaining, we saw the term 'blacksplaining' emerge where white people have found it necessary to explain to people of, primarily African, but also other ethnicities, the oppression they have experienced, apparently unaware that such explaining is, in itself, a kind of oppression, or at the very least an expression of racism, however well meaning.</p><p>When I say there is a phenomenon that I call 'surrealsplaining' I mean that it is parallel to such manifestations as mansplaining and blacksplaining and it is mostly based on the belief that an opinion has the same weight as actual knowledge. So here's the grumpy bit, my annoyance at people who think that what I might have to say on the subject of Surrealism pales into insignificance compared to an opinion gleaned from a three minute You Tube video or a review of an exhibition in a newspaper. Usually, that annoyance is mixed with amusement, and that is a blessing, otherwise I'd have exploded with rage long ago, and that would be messy. </p><p>In a previous post I mentioned something that frequently occurs, which goes like this:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Fan: “I love X, X is my favourite surrealist!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">X: “I am not a surrealist, I don’t much like surrealism.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Me: “X is not a surrealist”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Fan: “You are SOOO narrow-minded!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">For instance, somebody once approached me, referring to Francis Bacon in this way. But Bacon seems to have had a low regard for Surrealism, possibly, in part, because he was turned down from exhibiting in the London International Surrealist Exhibition in the 1930s. Bacon was not a surrealist, he makes scant reference to Surrealism and in general his attitudes are quite different to those of most surrealists, artistically, philosophically and politically. But the fan insists that Bacon is a great surrealist and doesn't look beyond the label being denied by the nasty man.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">However, I'd like to claim a rather more nuanced attitude than simply dividing the world into those who can be labelled surrealist and non-surrealist. I think that at several levels and junctures Bacon is potentially relevant to a surrealist painter, for instance, in his use of chance (inspired partly by Duchamp) and perhaps also in how this meshes with issues of embodiment and questioning the grand tradition of painting, for instance his metamorphosis of Velasquez's 'Pope </span><span>Innocent X'. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>We could also consider Bacon's long friendship with Michel Leiris, once a member of the Surrealist Group and long after with friendly relationships in that quarter, another case of not actually being a surrealist, at least formally for most of his life, but with a definite relationship to the movement, and we can even consider his work to always exist in relation to Surrealism. What can't be done is simply collapse everything into the rubric of Surrealism presented as a simplistic and easy to digest catch-all. That falsifies both the various artists, writers and political activists and falsifies Surrealism.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>But to return to the issue of surrealsplaining, a large number of people do seem to want to explain their opinions with very little reference to facts of any kind. A while ago I found myself in this situation online where pointing out that I was a scholar of Surrealism elicited the response that he was referring to Surrealism, not academia, so I pointed out that I had 30 odd years as a surrealist activist, he responded that I was "acting as a gatekeeper". Thing is, I was doing no such thing, but simply pointing out that he had his facts wrong. He'd rather become abusive and accuse me of all sorts of things than consider, even for a minute, that he might be wrong.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>When I started a study of philosophy years back, my tutor told us "Nobody is interested in your opinion." She was not trying to be crushingly dismissive and rude about anything we might say, but pointing out that mere opinions have no structure of argument, and what is interesting in thinking is how we might employ facts in an argument in order to support a position, or change our position in the light of new facts or a better argument. Sadly, some people never even consider such a possibility, preferring the safety of static and dead opinions. I'm sure I must sometimes be guilty of this as well, it would seem to be distressingly common throughout humanity, so why should I be immune? However, as I am aware of the issue of having an argument that might change my mind, perhaps I'm not wholly hopeless. How about you?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-47869093306696727262022-03-01T08:18:00.001-08:002022-03-02T10:01:02.596-08:00SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS - FIRST THOUGHTS<p> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Surrealism Beyond Borders - First Thoughts</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgg6vI2WFFqkB2EfeyK-NqMCXBf4NS5p_efb9fAKRN1yr7lhH8jkP4PANJUo50VEEKXy9XoktsRcC7jK8luCrKWBAcyxzXiAGKdqF1z8ZJQui1DfaimKk-fTeCCBGWtMfFauyrayWgScKWGp4TM_1dgOi79iAU2_5dL_0yPrz6xvG53XftNrheOczHu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgg6vI2WFFqkB2EfeyK-NqMCXBf4NS5p_efb9fAKRN1yr7lhH8jkP4PANJUo50VEEKXy9XoktsRcC7jK8luCrKWBAcyxzXiAGKdqF1z8ZJQui1DfaimKk-fTeCCBGWtMfFauyrayWgScKWGp4TM_1dgOi79iAU2_5dL_0yPrz6xvG53XftNrheOczHu=w251-h362" width="251" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>The back cover of the Surrealism Beyond Borders catalogue, complete with barcode</b></p><p>Yesterday I made my first visit to the Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition at Tate Modern, I'll be making several more. It's an interesting idea for an exhibition that is at least partially successful, but bound by several limitations regarding the point of view from which it is organised, the choice of works and the very nature of the exhibition.</p><p>So, to start, it is an exhibition about Surrealism, not a surrealist exhibition, and this point is crucial to understand, it has been formed in official institutions and regardless of the individual positions of its curators, remains an institutional exhibition. Although it frequently refers to Surrealism's radicalism, intellectual, artistic and political, this is nevertheless filtered through the institutional view of what is acceptable.</p><p>The choice of works gives a particular viewpoint that skews the impression formed by the exhibition as a whole. This is inevitable, but nevertheless must be stressed. I think it was important to open up the work of the Egyptian surrealists, but however important they were I don't think that they were less important than the Czechs who are almost invisible here.</p><p>There are two very small photographs by Jindrich Styrsky that really work best in the book they were published in "On The Needles Of These Days" and could easily be missed here, alongside a rather lovely photo by Vilem Reichmann. Opposite, there is a film-loop of Svankmajer's "The Flat" on continuous play, and that is that, until much later on, one gets one (superb) late Toyen. So no clear impression of Surrealism in the Czech lands can be formed, and really important works and artists and thinkers are simply absent. There should have been something by Emila Medkova. She was at the very least as important a photographer as Reichmann, and more involved in organised Surrealism. To omit all of Styrsky's painting seems very odd, surely they could have got hold of <i>something </i>by this absolutely essential surrealist painter? Then there's nothing by Mikulas Medek, (Medkova's husband) or Josef Istler. I could, and at a later date probably will, go on. But my point is that these are artists who are crucial to the understanding of Surrealism at an international level, and whose absence distorts the image of Surrealism, and these might be far more necessary than various artists who are included that were never surrealists, but merely influenced by surrealist art. (Several times we come across an artist who we are informed was "not actually a surrealist but...")</p><p>A number of artists among the "not actually surrealist" do add to the overall impression of the extraordinary international reach of surrealist ideas, including Filipino artists, possibly something to discuss further in a future instalment, but the greatest problem with any exhibition of Surrealism is, simply that it is an art exhibition. As one can never over-emphasise that Surrealism is not, and never was, an art movement, despite being best known for the visual work generated by the movement, nor was, or is it a literary movement, despite the vast output of poetry by surrealists. The real importance of the poetic and visual work is in pointing to the body of ideas that constitute Surrealism which get frequent mention, but by the very nature of the exhibition, can't be properly developed.</p><p>Another problem with the choice of works is that practically nothing later than 1970 is included. This reinforces the popular idea that Surrealism ceased to exist after Breton's death. But if we consider, for instance, that Svankmajer's "The Flat" was released in 1968, two years before he joined the surrealist group, all of his specifically surrealist work is excluded from the exhibition and this is a great shame. I'm not complaining about the inclusion of "The Flat", it is a great little film and fully in the surrealist spirit, but it is symptomatic of the problems in this exhibition by dint of when it was released. Referring to my earlier point, it is also a shame that the show includes nothing by Eva Svankmajerova, women Czech surrealists are only represented by the single Toyen painting, magnificent though it is, which, incidentally, was painted about 20 years after she moved to Paris.</p><p>The catalogue, which I shall discuss another day, is big and expensive (£35) and has what promises to be a number of interesting essays in it, but I noticed that there's a number of works not included in the London exhibition, unless I simply missed them, I'll have to double-check this on my next visit as this too reflects on the scope of the show and what understanding it might provide to the visitor.</p><p>I think I will have a good deal more to say, in response to further visits, reading the catalogue, and, who knows? maybe reader's comments. I'll certainly want to discuss the inevitable media circus that will surround the exhibition. So this is far from the last word from me...you have been warned...</p><p>PS: Ted Joans' "Long Distance" is almost the only work to have been begun after 1970, the final installments added after his death in 2003. Nevertheless, it reinforces that odd deadline.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-75676884558545971772022-02-26T09:35:00.000-08:002022-02-26T09:35:29.559-08:00So Ya Wannabe a Surrealist? Part 2. The S Word and Other Contentious Issues<p> <b>SO YA WANNABE A SURREALIST? PART 2. THE S WORD AND OTHER CONTENTIOUS ISSUES</b></p><p>The word is 'surreal'. Like "It's so surreal!" meaning what exactly? I hate the word because it is a flabby meaningless word that slinks around the dark corners of dictionaries and signifies whatever people want it to signify, or not. Most surrealists don't use the word because of this vague and fluffy concept of...something weird, a bit unreal. "We took loads of sleeping pills and booze and everything looked so surreal", that sort of thing.</p><p>The trouble is, this is pretty much the opposite of what is meant by Surrealism, or by surreality. Think of the idea as being a sort of 'open totality' of reality bound together with the imaginary, the waking with the dream.</p><p>But don't take my word for it, let's juxtapose the "kinda weird" definition of 'surreal' with Andre Breton's definition in the Second Manifesto of Surrealism. This is the absolute classic passage where Breton goes beyond the original definition in the 1924 Manifesto, of "pure psychic automatism" and embraces a dialectical approach to the problems of existence:</p><p>"Everything tends to make
us believe that there exists a certain point of the mind at
which life and d<span style="font-family: inherit;">eath, the real and the imagined, past and
future. the communicable and the incommunicable. high
and low, cease to be perceived as contradictions. Now,
search as one may one will never find any other motivating force in the activities of the Surrealists than the hope
of finding and fixing this point. From this it becomes obvious how absurd it would be to define Surrealism solely
as constructive or destructive: the point to which we are
referring is a fortiori that point where construction and
destruction can no longer be brandished one against the
other. It is also clear that Surrealism is not interested in
giving very serious consideration to anything that happens
outside of itself, under the guise of art, or even anti-art,
of philosophy or anti-philosophy-in short, of anything not
aimed at the annihilation </span>of the being into a diamond, all
blind and interior, which is no more the soul of ice than
that of fire." (Andre Breton. (1929) Second Manifesto of Surrealism.)</p><p>I want to impress on you both the intensity and the grandeur of this vision...and I have quite forgotten to tell any jokes...</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another frequent mistake is the equation of Salvador Dali with Surrealism. Dali was indeed involved with Surrealism for a few years, made a significant contribution, but increasingly promoted himself as <i>the</i> surrealist, to the expense of other surrealists and the movement itself while slipping to the far right to the extent that he praised Franco. <span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">André Breton famously made an anagram of his name, Avida Dollars. Perhaps I should devote an article to Dali, explaining fully why I dislike him and his work, but really I think it is enough to just say that he was a fascist and a racist who prostituted his undoubted talent and made a great many shitty paintings with immaculate technique. What do they say? Fuck that guy!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Another thing I might as well deal with now is the "last/lost surrealist syndrome". I have seen this for as long as I can remember, well, as far back as the 70s anyway. In that instance it was </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">André </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;">Masson who was described in a newspaper article as the last surrealist, despite the fact that there were a great many older surrealists still going. I have seen it trotted out frequently since then.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;">I noticed that there will be an event at Tate Modern devoted to Leonora Carrington "England's Lost Surrealist." Who lost her exactly? I remember a splendid retrospective exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery back in 1990, I think it was. Virago published most, if not all, of her writings, and they were pretty popular. She'd had a considerable following for several years before that, in part due to Whitney Chadwick's "Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement", a rather wretched book in many ways, but at least important for bringing a number of women artists to the public's attention. Leonora had, it has to be said, been very well known to surrealists for many years, but as establishment views were that surrealists were obsolete, various important surrealists had to be made profitable before they could be given publicity. So, over the years, a number of really quite wonderful women surrealists have been 'discovered'. A few works, like Amy Hale's book on Ithell Colquhoun, are real treasures, many less so.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;">If we are to have a sort of award for works presenting women surrealists, it must go the Penelope Rosemont's epic Women Surrealists, which accounts for, I think, over 100, and attempts to give some context to writers, painters, thinkers and activists. I'm not sure it is wholly successful, but it is a hugely ambitious book and could never be <i>wholly</i> successful. It is, however, wholly necessary for anybody who wants a compendious account of women in the surrealist movement. It counteracts the misleading impressions of Chadwick's volume, and that is a good start.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgvQuGvJLId9Hcsvjd5X2cVjLtBFPzVz5J4rXYPqbEkkxPHoMMkw5r33uqLXg1sCPSys_O2hF0NPZF45zIR99iehLl4I4iIr3MfPKhDkOGm-nMkzbwcvLLvEoX6VSwRM0gMMYFTL7nEDmJswcHf7uvoyI6H1yXj1sH-JuWEbJy9d0Z2cPReyO3xRC7" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgvQuGvJLId9Hcsvjd5X2cVjLtBFPzVz5J4rXYPqbEkkxPHoMMkw5r33uqLXg1sCPSys_O2hF0NPZF45zIR99iehLl4I4iIr3MfPKhDkOGm-nMkzbwcvLLvEoX6VSwRM0gMMYFTL7nEDmJswcHf7uvoyI6H1yXj1sH-JuWEbJy9d0Z2cPReyO3xRC7=w228-h342" width="228" /></a></span></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;">Here it is, now, if you don't already have a copy, you need to hunt it down and acquire it before making any comments about women and Surrealism...I mean, read it, don't just buy it, right?<br /><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-53820866057139766362022-02-24T09:29:00.000-08:002022-02-24T09:29:32.717-08:00So Ya Wannabe A Surrealist? Part One. Introduction<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlVWtqBgHK2MRBdG0KcfaPvVN68OR_KGxcJJxdyP9nO6UN2pXzs_LCQqkcDZbXtP6Ao6IEk8CMyxTYQIKyXmk7cEhYQb1dmmgANeinnpC7cAGLCASnxIjj9r6jQljfqpxuwRobF8MNn1RYheqNWxNLxwGZHgFARnR6LpL6R5o6yASjw0nsOxJuznqP=s3335" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3335" data-original-width="2144" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlVWtqBgHK2MRBdG0KcfaPvVN68OR_KGxcJJxdyP9nO6UN2pXzs_LCQqkcDZbXtP6Ao6IEk8CMyxTYQIKyXmk7cEhYQb1dmmgANeinnpC7cAGLCASnxIjj9r6jQljfqpxuwRobF8MNn1RYheqNWxNLxwGZHgFARnR6LpL6R5o6yASjw0nsOxJuznqP=w311-h368" width="311" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>SO, YA WANNABE A SURREALIST?</b></p><p><b>Part One: Introduction</b></p><p>A new exhibition has just opened in London, at the Tate Modern, 'Surrealism Beyond Borders'. It's essential message is that Surrealism never was just an art movement, based in Paris during the inter-war years, but a multi-formed intellectual movement that was international, interdisciplinary, and that existed well beyond the arbitrary expiry dates of 1939, 1947, or whatever suited the art historians of whatever period, and might even reveal that Surrealism continues to exist 100 years after the founding of the movement.</p><p>Now, the exact centenary of Surrealism can be disputed, the group was formed out of the wreckage of Paris Dada in 1922, but the real founding document, the Manifesto of Surrealism, was only written and published in 1924. But the point here is that there's about a hundred years of surrealist activity to account for and that continues in 2022, despite everything that has opposed it.</p><p>It struck me that it is possible that a huge exhibition like Surrealism Beyond Borders might stimulate enough interest in Surrealism that a few bright sparks may decide that they are indeed surrealists and then possibly, just possibly, attempt to start up something they consider to be surrealist activity. To those brave few, I offer some advice, warnings, and maybe the odd joke.</p><p>I have already been there, became fascinated by Surrealism, decided that its values and mine coincided sufficiently for me to think of myself as a surrealist, and went out to find like-minded souls. During over 30 years of being active within the surrealist milieu I have also completed a major research project on the subject. I therefore do possess a level of experience and expert knowledge, although to call be an expert might be overdoing it, and I only do so as a joke to myself. The point is that I'm both an activist and a scholar of Surrealism who has some happy and some less happy experiences I can share, whether or not you care to learn from my experience is up to you.</p><p>You should not think that I am trying to impose a set of hard and fast rules, at least not beyond the suggestion that Surrealism should be surrealist and that if one speaks of Surrealism it really helps if one has enough knowledge of Surrealism to not look like a complete idiot. I really think that the best advice is to read primary sources, the surrealists themselves, in preference to academic commentators, but don't despise the academics either, they do have something to offer, despite some extraordinarily piss-poor examples of what passes for scholarship. From this mix you can form a better idea of what surrealists think and do and thus find your way around this passional idea.</p><p>You might decide that, with the increasing hope that Covid-19 might fade into the background of our lives, there's more possibilities of something like collective action. You might have found some places on the internet that, apparently, offer surrealist activity, treat them with caution until you have a clearer idea of where they are coming from. You might decide to advertise more locally for contacts to start up a new activity, in which case you'd do well to learn from the experience of a friend of mine. </p><p>This friend advertised in Fortean Times for people to play surrealist games. He was inundated with replies, in excess of 60 I think, and from a very broad and sometimes quite strange, range of people. His respondents did include a few surrealists, but included post-situationist nutjobs, conspiracy theorists and self-promoting minor artists, to name but a few. There was no common idea of what might be done, what Surrealism was, is, or should be or anything much, and I remember some spin-off meetings where these things were debated and one person thought that calling something Surrealism was a bad idea. Another thought that groups were an entirely wrong way to go about things, he was entirely opposed to groups in favour of networks. We were confronted with the strange idea of a non-surrealist non-group. </p><p>The thing is, many people approach this sort of proposal with very fixed ideas and stuff like facts scarcely impinge upon them and the thought of how Surrealism might really relate to Situationist ideas and practice, the structure and purpose of conspiracies or how it might change the way one understands art. You might be somebody with an open and enquiring mind who comes across similar people who share a passion for Surrealism and perhaps then you are well on your way. </p><p>There are various things to be considered however, for instance, the fundamental ideas of Surrealism, how it developed historically, where the fault-lines in surrealist theory might be (probably not where you'd expect) and the limitations of contemporary practice. So here's what I thought I'd do. I'll carry on writing a series of blog posts under this general title, exploring these basic ideas, inviting comments, and then I might add to, or edit the posts according to any comments I get. If you bother to read this at all, you might wish to comment or ask questions and I might do a Q&A post. If nobody says anything, I may or may not continue, according to my whim.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-294455452788606752022-01-02T07:25:00.000-08:002022-01-02T07:25:02.181-08:00Josef Janda (1950-2021)<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijPtaI5Vi9EiW-MitCikjbjxSvWKoYLE6AvDFfd0-P7OwW8PMpfpxE9W8AVZnVBpn51LFvIXl8ijOX15eDS3xabPSe_npL5_J7RhLB_V62owrVxWZ__7FOxIDGN_RDHk5tRmsXw5RnByVzws4unoVVJHrIRWhaJax6PqcWGM6GdbhyRn6wHxcnGgA0=s320" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijPtaI5Vi9EiW-MitCikjbjxSvWKoYLE6AvDFfd0-P7OwW8PMpfpxE9W8AVZnVBpn51LFvIXl8ijOX15eDS3xabPSe_npL5_J7RhLB_V62owrVxWZ__7FOxIDGN_RDHk5tRmsXw5RnByVzws4unoVVJHrIRWhaJax6PqcWGM6GdbhyRn6wHxcnGgA0" width="256" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Josef Janda (1950-2021)</span></b></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I first met
Josef Janda at Prague airport in August 1991, with his friend and fellow
surrealist Jakub Effenberger. I knew Josef’s name from a poem in an anthology
of translations in Dunganon. It soon became apparent that Josef took the
business of foreign surrealists visiting Prague very seriously and he organised
several lengthy walks around the city that, however long, and however
picturesque, would always end in the cheapest pubs imaginable. Towards the end
of our stay, Josef offered me an exhibition in Prague which led to my returning
to Prague the following April.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My
exhibition took place in the Junior Club, an important hangout for the
dissidents under the old regime. Josef not only set up the exhibition, but got
a poem of mine translated and wrote an article in a Czech daily newspaper that,
rather amazingly, gave me equal space with Chagall and David Bowie. I started
to realise that Josef was a more of a force in the Czech cultural scene than I
had supposed, he was an unassuming man whose limited English led to long
silences when he thought out what he was going to say.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was not
the only foreign surrealist to benefit from his kind efforts, a few years later
he was asked to give poetry readings in Wales and he stayed with us in London,
both on the way to and on his return from, Swansea. I later found out that his
poetry readings had been a great success, with him speaking the poems in Czech
and somebody then reading the translation. He left many friends and admirers in
Swansea.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This led to
an important exhibition at the Glyn Vivian Gallery in Swansea by the Czech and
Slovak Surrealist Group in 1998, “Invention Imagination Interpretation”. The
majority of British surrealists travelled to Swansea in order to meet the Czech
surrealists and see their work at first hand. This was the first of a number of
collaborative exhibitions that Josef helped to organise. One fruit of this was
a volume of his poems translated into English and published by Dark Windows
Press, <i>Free Style</i>. It was fascinating to at last see Josef’s poetic vision
set out in English. The poems are usually humorous, curious fantasies of golems
and werewolves populate a wasteland, sometimes with a deceptive air of
solemnity and a genuine melancholy. The humour is dark and often concerned, at
least partly with death. There is an anarchic a touch of Peret in his poetic voice
and in his quietly savage irony such as here:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">SLIGHTLY
OPTIMISTIC<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">When a leg falls off a man<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">He can still hop on the other<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">And when the other falls off<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">He can easily roll down a hill.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">It’s good to be an optimist<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Even after death it’s best to stay close-lipped<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">And rot in bed silently.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I had been unable to travel much for several years and when my
circumstances improved, I looked forward to returning to Prague and
re-establishing contact and meeting with him again. Now that can never happen. Josef
was a true poet, a true surrealist and a true friend. Many people will miss
him, I am just one of that many.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Josef Janda (1950-2021)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Somebody has cut out an anti-collage from reality<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is in the shape of Josef Janda<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">And there is an absence in the world<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">In the shape of Josef Janda<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">The shadows of leaves<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">In the shape of birds<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Will fall endlessly<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">In the cellars of Prague<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">And the shadows of birds<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Will make nests<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">In the shape of Josef Janda’s beard<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">And all the werewolves in the world<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Will call to each other<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Throughout the night<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-72845781586238526022021-03-12T07:10:00.000-08:002021-03-12T07:10:18.831-08:00AGAMBEN: WHERE ARE WE NOW? THE EPIDEMIC AS POLITICS<p>The following is still a rough draft, but I thought I would publish it on my blog and see if it gets any comments. I intend to revise it over the next few days, possibly quite a lot. Agamben's work informed my choice of name for this blog. If the powers that be have their way, the space that remains shall be greatly diminished forever. I consider it worth thinking through some of these issues.</p><p><br /></p><p>Giorgio Agamben's latest work, "Where Are We Now?" is subtitled "The Epidemic As Politics." This tells the reader quite a lot of what to expect. It is rather different to most of his works as it is a response to a current situation, like State of Exception, but unlike that previous volume, it is a series of very short articles, often written for newspapers, and brief interviews. The chapters are in chronological order, so we can see the development and gradual focusing of Agamben's thoughts on the subject.</p><p>It starts a little unpromisingly as he doubts the seriousness of the epidemic, and more than once he seems peevish at being misrepresented by a journalist or complaining that newspapers refuse to publish an article, also, one might be a little startled at the claim on the first page of the Foreword where he says "it's irrelevant whether it (the pandemic) is real or simulated" however, Agamben has definitely not joined the tin foil hat brigade and, as he starts to articulate his thoughts on the crisis more clearly, we can see a lot of things that have happened in Italy that apply to most countries, and are certainly familiar to anybody living in the UK.</p><p>The sense in which it doesn't matter whether the pandemic is real or not is the way it is being used by the rulers of this world. If, instead of fantasising about reptilian overlords or Illuminati or fiendishly clever criminal conspiracies, we see the shifty, somewhat inept, but power-hungry actual rulers tempted by opportunities to extend their power.little by little, in the long term, while getting our agreement to go along with a "state of exception" in which most of our rights and freedoms are abrogated. We have to ask, just how much of our accustomed freedom will be returned to us?</p><p>But who, in the short term, is not willing to set aside freedoms and intimacy, for the common good, when it is genuinely an exception? The point is, as Agamben puts it, the state of exception has become the rule.</p><p>As I write, many are increasingly worried about Priti Patel's plans to limit the right to protest. (See here: https://www.politics.co.uk/comment/2021/03/11/silencing-black-lives-matter-priti-patels-anti-protest-law/?cmpredirect). This is not the only example, and I'm sure anybody who bothers to read this can think of other examples on an international scale.</p><p>Where Are We Now? can be seen as a codicil to Agamben's Homo Sacer project which in turn founds itself on the basis of Foucault's considerations of biopolitics and 'bare life'. In the current work, bare life is the insistence on continuing to live, no matter what, despite the loss of the public sphere, social intercourse, intimacy. This loss renders us helpless, fed by supermarket deliveries and Amazon. Everybody is now unfamiliar, masked and distanced, and an alienated society becomes more, even more, alienated thane we might ever have imagined.</p><p>For Agamben, and I absolutely agree with him here, we simply can not just return to normal, the normality of borgeois democracy is broken and we must not accept tyranny by stealth, the breaking of the intimate bonds of society, all real intersubjective communication, living out endlessly miserable and afraid, alienated, socially distanced lives. We shall have to reclaim the public realm for ourselves and find new ways to live. That is the most essential message of this fascinating, but imperfect book, and a demand on us to reclaim our freedom.</p><p>We know that the pandemic is real enough, I know people who have been very seriously affected by it, and it is clear that the government, like many governments, has mishandled it disasterously. But all this is more than the pandemic itself, it is a symptom of a world dying before our eyes. It is always up to us, collectively, to determine what sort of world we shall live in.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Agamben, Giorgio (2021) Where Are We Now? The Epidemic As Politics. Translated by Valeria Dani. London. Eris.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-55262818778093393992021-01-13T04:44:00.004-08:002021-01-14T14:18:04.754-08:00Zones of Freedom?<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNgFyoxKmy0Epm2rPr4pGoNI83hSwVedI24ITgelv9eAaEcgqEvBqre9KdqJFyV9GGGsxTy4syqZ-HAM2UJVlXI0n4bqTzFlRSiQq_U2cIftBAuS52vM0I-lxNuRg1s4pVu3Y5yqhK2Y/s644/img067+%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="623" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNgFyoxKmy0Epm2rPr4pGoNI83hSwVedI24ITgelv9eAaEcgqEvBqre9KdqJFyV9GGGsxTy4syqZ-HAM2UJVlXI0n4bqTzFlRSiQq_U2cIftBAuS52vM0I-lxNuRg1s4pVu3Y5yqhK2Y/s320/img067+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Vigilant readers of this blog (if they exist) will have noted a recurring theme around the question "what is surrealist time?" and consequently the meshing of time and space. I suggested that a model of discontinuous time might serve us better than say, the flow and duration of Bergson, that discontinuity, building upon Bachelard's Instant allowed a breach in the flow of capitalist time and this might in turn allow 'free time' to come into play.</div>
Free time seems to require a consciousness of freedom, so not just that no demands are being made of our time by our bosses, external or internal (isn't the superego the ultimate boss?) but a break from the cycle of production and consumption - useless time, as it were. I didn't think that in saying this, I had reached some extraordinary originality, even in the way I stitched together pieces of a discourse, but I did feel it had some merit and was something that surrealists were not discussing enough, or in sufficient depth. (I may be wrong, but then I'd like to see a better dialogue about these matters in order to improve my own awareness.)<br />
This 'free time' is, in itself, clearly inadequate. It suggests a moment of eruption of freedom and then a return to the life of work and effective servitude to capitalism, even in one's officially sanctified leisure. Nevertheless, it is also, I think, necessary. Not one eruption, but many, together or not, slowly weakening the fabric of oppression, allowing the idea of real freedom to permeate. When I had thought this through to some level of coherence, I saw that it had obvious parallels with Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zone. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone) but then I had not considered that I was saying anything astoundingly original, only articulating it in a different way and context.<div>Most spaces are, in various ways, alienated. They are owned and privatised, fenced off. We are allowed runways from space to space in order to go to and return for work, we can enter spaces as employees, or as consumers, the spaces we are allowed to roam freely are very limited, even in the countryside, most space is owned and fenced off. This has all become more evident over the last year, as many restrictions during the Covid 19 pandemic have made many spaces less available than ever before, and at various times we have not even been able to loiter, but have to move on, exercise, spend our money and return home.</div><div>Regarding the last, I am not complaining so much, as I am not a conspiracy theorist who believes the pandemic to be fake. I do, however, note that our freedom was already limited and is far more curtailed, and we will have to be sure that this curtailment is not installed as a regular feature of our lives post-Covid. people can have terribly short memories, and the memory of greater freedom can pass into legend in a disturbingly short time.</div><div>Fortunately for me, a modest blog post like this is not expected to set everything right or provide the perfect theory. (PHEW!) However, I think it is worth reminding people of the importance of reclaiming our spaces, take wandering to the limits, even now, and as Covid 19 becomes a memory, reclaim our freedom of public spaces and start to enlarge them, discover new zones of freedom, make the world at large a playground.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div></div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-69346582001478759362021-01-12T07:28:00.002-08:002021-01-12T07:28:55.489-08:00COMMENTS AND INSULTS<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">COMMENTS AND INSULTS<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Every now and then I do get comments to my blog posts and I’m
grateful for that, as it shows somebody, somewhere, reads them. However, some
people like to unleash what the obviously believe to be pretty damning insults,
possibly intended to get me really riled up, presumably. You know, like
five-year olds: “You’re stinky!” “No! You’re stinky!” Maybe at a less
sophisticated level though. Here are two recent ones:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Comment on post UNDERGROUND (Tuesday, 26 November 2019)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From what I see here, Stuart, you are a rather pretentious
pseudo-intellectual with no real grasp of what surrealism is. You espouse a
myriad of dogmatic notions in order to elevate yourself as some kind of self
appointed authority on matters. You remind me of a person who not only is in
love with the smell of their own farts, but, a person who enjoys quaffing them
from a wine glass. I see no real understanding of surrealism or of anything
else here either.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Comment on post THE SURREALIST COMMUNITY (Wednesday, 6
November 2019)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Its funny you mentioned narcissism because I noticed this in
another of your posts. I can't see how you are a surrealist at all. Your
writing isn't surrealist and doesn't show a trace of understanding what
surrealism is. Thats Breton's ideas of surrealism and those outside of Breton
as well. You seem to me to be an unhappy bitter windy old fellow with narcissim
problems.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">MY RESPONSE<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have always thoroughly despised people who post insults
anonymously, as you have here. There’s no substance to anything you say, just
empty insults. At no point do you argue with anything I have said, attempted to
put a different point of view. If I am all you say, at least I have the courage
to put my name to my opinions. Whereas you are a gutless piece of shit, lacking
the courage even to put your name to an online comment. What else would I have
to say to such cowardly stupidity? Maybe try again when you have grown up or grown a spine?<o:p></o:p></p>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-4780240874483560062021-01-08T07:37:00.004-08:002021-01-08T07:37:27.583-08:00A MIRROR TO THE DEBUTANTE<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A Mirror to the
Debutante<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_aN5aqsz41LlR6vZyVbaiec3Tuay1JuNlb5MQj9gqv6Kb8E8K1ZoVYAry27w94eRmOsRjidEbWejkslgrbxSGzihk_VVIQFwgMAAUAv8oxZmcEtrVIqge9LLLpSC2uDk05vkMYdusQeM/" style="font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="307" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_aN5aqsz41LlR6vZyVbaiec3Tuay1JuNlb5MQj9gqv6Kb8E8K1ZoVYAry27w94eRmOsRjidEbWejkslgrbxSGzihk_VVIQFwgMAAUAv8oxZmcEtrVIqge9LLLpSC2uDk05vkMYdusQeM/" width="194" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">While I enjoyed both issues of the new journal The Debutante</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">, I do
also have several problems with it, one of which is its declared nature as a
journal of “feminist-surrealism”. The first issue contains a very brief
“Feminist-Surrealist Manifesto” which does nothing much to clarify the editors’
relationship to Surrealism as the journal and its contributors seem to be
ignorant of contemporary Surrealism.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a man writing about a publication, almost entirely by
women, and avowedly feminist, I would not wish to be disparaging about either,
however, a magazine that calls itself surrealist and yet seems to have so
little awareness of much of surrealism seems to me to be asking for trouble.</span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The most obvious problem with
the term ‘feminist-surrealist’ is not that it foregrounds feminism, but that it
implies that other surrealists are not feminist. This is not only simply wrong,
but seems to me rather insulting to the many women who have been involved in
the surrealist movement over the course of a century.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What knowledge of surrealism they demonstrate is mostly
historical and that mostly art-historical. They seem to want to claim a lot of
very disparate women artists and some art historians as ‘feminist-surrealists’
who challenge “the patriarchal structures of canonical surrealism” <a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At this point I have to ask “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What</i> patriarchal structures?” I see nothing in surrealism as such
that is inherently male, masculinist or patriarchal. Perhaps I’m being blind
here, but if so I need accurate analyses of these factors, not only to be aware
of them, but in order to help dismantle them. What we do have to acknowledge is
that surrealism was almost entirely founded by men, they were mostly
disaffected and traumatised young men who, in the wake of the Great War wished
to find, not new ways of making art, but new ways of living and understanding
life, an effort that required a revolution. It is impossible to doubt that,
despite their youth and their intent, they carried a great deal of cultural
baggage with them. They were born at the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> century and
many of the early works show, at best, a lack of clarity on gender issues. The
volume Investigating Sex<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> does
Andr</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">é</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Breton few
favours, for instance, but many commentators have reacted as if comments made
in a discussion in the late 20s were definitive of the status of women in
surrealism, and the last word on the subject. This view needs to be challenged.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What is especially disconcerting about The Debutante is that
they seem oblivious to Penelope Rosemont’s Surrealist Women<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> which,
over 20 years ago addressed many of their concerns and, I think I am right in
saying this, in presenting the work of over 100 women surrealists, was a
corrective to the biased and inaccurate account of Whitney Chadwick’s Women
Artists and the Surrealist Movement. However, even Rosemont had to admit to
little evidence of surrealist activity by women a hundred years ago, though
there were contributors to surrealist journals such as Nancy Cunard, and we
should always mention Simone Breton, who was at the centre of the original
group, not merely an appendage of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Andr</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">é</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Successive decades of surrealist activity have shown an
ever-growing proportion of women involved, and to the point where, in some
groups, there is not only equity, but women can even outnumber men, and not
just as artists or poets, but as theoreticians and political activists. Just as
a very random sample, I might mention Emila Medkova, Suzanne Cesaire<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>, Nora
Mitrani, Eva Svankmajerova, Joyce Mansour, Jayne Cortez, Sarah Metcalf, Merl
Fluin, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Casi Cline and , Annie Le Brun.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The last named has actually been described as an
‘anti-feminist’, which I think is a considerable misunderstanding. Le Brun
wrote a number of texts, mostly published in a volume Lachez Tout<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> which
lambasts the popular feminism of the time. For Le Brun, much of what passed for
feminism was a sell-out and an inverted image of patriarchy, substituting an
equally oppressive Matriarchy for Big Daddy. Establishment feminism could be said
to point to the ‘glass ceiling’ and demand that women join the boardrooms of
great corporations in much greater numbers, and while there are boardrooms, it
is hard to argue against female representation there, but the point, surely, is
for men and women alike to abolish boardrooms?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Put differently, for me, the point is not to dismiss identity
politics as irrelevant, but not to regard identity issues as separate from the
central political and social issues either. A genuinely radical movement will
always be in favour of the liberation of women, ethnic minorities, gays and
other sexualities, the disabled…everybody, in fact. It only works if those
various groups, rather than focus entirely on their own particular concerns as
black, gay, female, whatever, consider liberation as a whole, how it applies to
each and every group, and to each other. Anything else fragments and fails.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s another problem, the often fraught question of who is
a surrealist. This is sometimes framed as a seemingly narrow question of
identity and I know that Merl Fluin, for instance, has pointed out a number of
times that Georges Bataille was not a surrealist. In the most literal sense,
this is certainly true, and I think that Merl’s concern here is less with
establishing an overly dogmatic judgement on the issue as much as defending
surrealism against misconceptions such as those revealed in Hal Foster’s
Compulsive Beauty<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
which posits a “Bretonian Surrealism” and a “Bataillean Surrealism” going head
to head in a sort of battle for supremacy. This ignores the facts that Bataille
didn’t call himself a surrealist and many of his colleagues were far from being
surrealist in any way whatsoever. I have known people to attack surrealism on
the basis of Bataille’s and his friends, actions and ideas rather than those of
Breton and the people who actually identified as surrealists, and when one of
those people associated with Bataille proposes a ‘sur-fascism’ – I hope you see
my point. However, we also have to remember that not only did Breton and
Bataille collaborate on Contre-Attaque, but later became friends and Breton
invited Bataille to collaborate in both the 1947 and 1959 International
Surrealist Exhibitions. Bataille referred to himself as surrealism’s ‘old enemy
from within’, not in order to simply destroy it, but to undermine what he saw
as it’s too idealistic<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>elements and to
remake its more revolutionary and experiential components over its artistic
ones. Many surrealists have considered Bataille as an expression of the
surrealist spirit and even as an opposite pole to Breton in that spirit, which
at the very least suggests that we should consider being surrealist in terms
other than simple identity.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another aspect of the same problem that I have often
encountered is when somebody contacts me, ostensibly about surrealism, and
promptly enthuses about an artist with few, if any, links to surrealism. If we
include that artist’s own comments on the matter, the conversation might go
like this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fan: “I love X, X is my favourite surrealist!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">X: “I am not a surrealist, I don’t much like surrealism.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Me: “X is not a surrealist”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fan: “You are SOOO narrow-minded!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You see the problem. The easiest solution would seem to be to
ask, when the person did not themselves identify as a surrealist, or
participate in surrealist activities, whether they are of surrealist interest.
As an example, consider Malcolm De Chazal. His religious ideas kept him
separate from the surrealists, but his ideas were crucial to thinking about
poetic analogy in the post-war period. He is, in many ways, alongside
surrealism, there were real points of contact and influence. Like Bataille, but
in a very different way, he can’t be considered wholly apart from surrealism,
and surrealism would be poorer without him, but he can’t be wholly subsumed
within surrealism either. It would be disrespectful to the person as well as
detrimental to the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The artists included in The Debutante are often asked about
the ways in which they are ‘feminist-surrealists’. This presupposes that they
do identify as such and I am afraid that too often their responses are not very
enlightening, show little knowledge of contemporary surrealism – and usually
not much of it historically either – and usually are not questioned in any
depth as to what this might mean. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This might all be seen as a hostile critique of The
Debutante, I don’t feel it is, however. I remember, with some embarrassment,
things I said and wrote in my earliest days identifying as a surrealist. My
naivet</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">é</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> was
considerable, my heart was in the right place, and, fortunately, few saw my
more stupid statements. Armed with more knowledge and slightly more
intellectual sophistication, I am not sure I avoided saying anything stupid
either. The question here is whether the editors of The Debutante are willing
to undergo a thorough revision of their initial attitudes, or stick with what,
in expression at any rate, is a fundamental misconception of surrealism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that if they choose the former, a
dialogue might be fruitful, not in selling a feminist surrealism, but in
articulating a surrealist feminism and making that more explicit and developed
could be interesting indeed.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The Debutante: The Feminist-Surrealist arts journal. (2020) Issues 1 and 2.
Edinburgh. (https://www.thedebutante.online/)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Interview with Penny Slinger. In: The Debutante (2020) Issue 1. Edinburgh.
P.21-24.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Investigating Sex (1992) Ed. Jose Pierre, Dawn Ades. London Verso Books.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Rosemont, P. (1998) Surrealist Women: An international anthology. Austin. University
of Texas Press.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
A pleasant surprise to see a short piece on Suzanne Cesaire on their blog: https://www.thedebutante.online/post/surrealism-and-us-a-love-letter-to-suzanne-c%C3%A9saire-or-the-truth-about-the-colonies<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Le Brun, Annie. (1978) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lachez Tout.
Paris. Le Sagittaire.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Stuart/Documents/The%20Debutante.odt#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Foster, Hal (1995) Compulsive Beauty. Cambridge MA. October Books. MIT Press.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-41111674001444957512020-07-01T12:01:00.001-07:002020-07-01T12:01:39.767-07:00When Autumn Is SpringI am growing old. Despite my best attempts, I am ageing and now, at the age of 66 I am about to retire. And when I retire I shall move house, leave London, where I have lived all my life and move to Wiltshire with Jane.<br />
This is the most significant change in my life since I left work to go to art school, back in 1979. Like then, I intend to focus on painting, an activity I ceased to enjoy many years ago and now feel I have a good basis for resuming with curiosity and with relish, not to mention a certain amount of anxiety. I might make a mess of it and find that my urge to paint is a kind of dying spasm of what was once a passion. I don't know, but I must find out.<br />
I will no longer be earning my living, except for a small amount of teaching for the Open University, which will provide me with some extra income. We shall be living in a cottage in the countryside a short distance from Fonthill Abbey, the home of William Beckford, the author of 'Vathek', possibly a suitable neighbourhood for a surrealist?<br />
We shall have a studio as big as the little flat I currently live in, and a large garden that ends in a winterbourne that, when it flows, flows into Fonthill Lake. Some of our nearest neighbours will be sheep.<br />
I am growing old, and yet I also feel as if I am undergoing a kind of rebirth. I remember when we asked Toni del Renzio, shortly after his 90th birthday, to join the London Surrealist Group and he said "I feel as if I am entering a whole new period of my life". sadly, at that age, it was not to be, and he died about a year later, but as somebody from a long-lived family, I can hop to last, maybe as long as Toni del Renzio, and this can indeed be a kind of spring, a renewal of life and of my vital forces, my creativity. I don't know, maybe it is just my overly optimistic dream? But then don't I owe it to myself to at least try to live that dream to the utmost? Who can stand in my way but myself?LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-55505963645401689362020-05-28T02:31:00.002-07:002020-05-28T02:31:50.487-07:00Joel Gayraud: The Day After Is Behind Us<br />
<br />
I have received this from Joel Gayraud of the Paris Surrealist Group:<br />
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<a href="https://illwilleditions.com/quarantine-letter-9-the-day-after-is-behind-us/">https://illwilleditions.com/quarantine-letter-9-the-day-after-is-behind-us/</a>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2807209355802147887.post-81908127179259667852019-12-02T03:29:00.003-08:002019-12-02T03:29:53.362-08:00THE PLATFORM OF PRAGUE (1968)The following link takes you to the Platform of Prague which was a joint statement of the Paris and Prague surrealists in 1968. This is also available in "Surrealism Against The Current" edited by Richardson and Fijalkowski. It is often considered to be the last statement of the integrated surrealist movement before Jean Schuster's 'Quatrieme Chant'. The fallout ensuing from the latter document, announcing Schuster's 'auto-dissolution' of surrealism, meant that no such document was possible for surrealism as such, although several quite considerable texts have been written over the years, they typically represent the views of a particular group or individual.<br />
Although not written by Breton, who had died two years previously, this text could be seen as the last of the manifestos of surrealism. It stands as a major restatement of surrealist principles, updating them, if you like to the age in which this text was written. However, that was over 50 years ago. What would be very interesting now would be a similar restatement for the 21st century, but while there will be texts from groups and individuals, I don't think we will ever see a text so central to surrealist endeavour in such an integrated and universal way. What is disturbing is how relevant it is today when we consider repressive systems.<br />
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Recently, I attended a lecture by Simon Sverak of the Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group and found we were in agreement that a similar rethinking and restatement of our priorities for surrealism in our time was necessary. Such a text could only arise out of discussion between both collectives and individuals, and I don't know how possible it is. Certainly such publications as Hydrolith and the last issue of Brumes Blondes have provided valuable snapshots of the surrealist movement in recent times, but seem to come to no unified conclusions.<br />
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<a href="http://criticallegalthinking.com/2011/01/12/the-surrealist-platform-of-prague-the-vessels-always-communicate/">http://criticallegalthinking.com/2011/01/12/the-surrealist-platform-of-prague-the-vessels-always-communicate/</a>LATENT NEWShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01838093023953384632noreply@blogger.com0