I bite the apple just like Eve. Oh silly girl, you should never accept sweets from a stranger; guess your father didn’t tell you that… Just that you should steer clear of one tree. But forbiddance creates temptation that we then work hard to conceal within our subconscious minds. However, one artistic movement became the key to these shut doors. Surrealism is its name.
All those years ago. At least 122 years, if we are to be contemplatively specific. Creative thinkers have always toyed with reality, but in the early 20th century Surrealism emerged as a philosophic and cultural movement.
Iván Correa, a surrealist visual artist, will be walking us through the complexities of this artform through his own experience of it. His artworks aim to reflect "the collective unconscious and the eternal conflict between order and chaos," by showcasing "timeless mystical images, through a new mythology, where dreams become very important."
He told Bored Panda that surrealism helps us confront conscious and unconscious issues, intuitively leading us towards a set of actions.
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The same snakes tell their tale. Jackie Craven, art and architecture expert, argues that Marxist ideas sparked a disdain for capitalist society and a thirst for social rebellion. The writings of Sigmund Freud suggested that higher forms of truth might be found in the subconscious. Moreover, the tragedy of World War I spurred a desire to break from tradition and explore new forms of expression.
Of love, and gore, and more. Surrealism allows individuals to tap into their subconscious, and to process their internalized thoughts. For many, such explorations led to the creation of shocking, graphic and provocative imagery.
Iván's art showcases these notions perfectly. "What attracts me to surrealism is the feeling of restlessness, mystery and tension of dreamlike images," he said.
"I play with the ambiguity of the flesh, the duality of life and death, the static and the mobile. Since my youth, without a doubt, I have been influenced by surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí, Bosch, Max Ernst, Zdzislaw Beksinski," he continued.
I lose myself towards the pit. As discussed on Tate.com, Surrealism aims to revolutionize the human experience, balancing a rational vision of life with one of the unconscious and dream-like in the search for freedom from imposed values and norms. It first started as a literary movement. Louis Aragon (1897–1982), Paul Éluard (1895–1952), and other poets experimented with automatic writing, or automatism, to free their imaginations. What that involves is losing conscious thought and writing whatever comes to mind; doesn’t mean it’s purposeless or nonsensical, though.
Of hell, they say, I say of mirth. A devout Marxist, André Breton believed that art springs from a collective spirit: The real functioning of thought and absence of all control exercised by reason. Philosopher Peter Carruthers insists that conscious thought, judgment and volition are illusions altogether, arising from processes of which we are forever unaware.
Iván brought us closer to his methods of creation, which reflect all this philosophy and history that we keep touching upon. "One of them starts with random strokes, without lifting the pen from the paper and without looking at it," he said. "Through automatic drawing, from the apparent chaos of my random strokes emerge powerful and disturbing images that I complete, incorporating very personal symbolic elements."
The second is what he calls the fumage technique. "Starting from a little controlled soot stain (generated by bringing the flame of a moving candle close to the paper), I draw in negative with different tools such as scalpels, metal tips used in intaglio engraving, bird feathers, rubber pencils or damaged brushes," he revealed. "The shapes suggested to me by the random soot stains are never consciously controlled, which makes this technique a suitable language to confront my own unconscious."
For having tasted flesh of pleasure. It’s quite ironic that what we call an uncontrolled and chaotic process is actually in charge of our controlled demeanors and actions. A study by Ezequiel Morsella and colleagues, published in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, showed that the unconscious mind is the one in charge of any potential thoughts one may have at any given moment. Morsella and his colleagues named it the “Passive Frame Theory,” stating that nearly all of the brain’s work is conducted in different lobes and regions at the unconscious level, completely without one’s knowledge.
I thus become light as a feather. When the processing is done and there is a decision to make or a physical act to perform, that very small job is served up to the conscious mind, which executes the work and then flatters itself that it was in charge all the time.
However, the surrealists use both, the conscious and unconscious, to create works of art as even chaos needs a direction. Iván explained that after the processes of automatic creation, he begins to interpreting the shapes. "They suggest different elements to me," he said. "The result is a meticulous work, rich in textures that could not be reached by any other artistic language than this little known technique."
The last tools of creation that he uses are Hypnagogic hallucinations. "Just before sleeping I visualize a scenario, very inspired by the paintings of the great masters of the Renaissance, and in a state of maximum relaxation, different creatures begin to appear on the scene that interact with each other," he revealed.
"When any of these images strongly awakens my interest, I automatically come out of that state and write it down or draw it in a small sketch," explaining that if he continued to stay in thet Hypnagogic state, he'd fall asleep and lose the image to memory.
A chair will catch me as I fall.
It’ll creak in protest, not before. These techniques allow Iván to explore different "isolated spaces, parts of another plane of reality, unknown places," that would not be possible to imagine otherwise. "The beings that inhabit them have been trapped for eternity, repeating over and over again the same actions. If you enter the dreamlike world I represent, you will experience a journey full of surreal images with a disconcerting symbology that dialogues with the art of ancient civilizations," he stated.
For all of us wanting to experience something similar, Iván has some advice on how to get started. "In my opinion, to create a surrealist work the main thing is to try to follow a method that represents the images of the subconscious, and that their interpretation helps us to better know ourselves," he said.
"Another method, different from those already mentioned, would be to create random spots with ink and interpret them or use marbled textures in which different creatures or landscapes can be found. They can also develop very interesting images through the use of collage, one of the techniques most used by surrealist artists," he concluded.
My shape releases all its meaning. Although Surrealist works are often mysterious and confusing, they’re also awe-inspiring. From opening our minds to different possibilities, to expressing complex thoughts, stances, and opinions on certain subjects, Surrealism is here to stay. I highly recommend you try creating something on impulse and see how that goes!
Red, and round, and small, and fleeting. Dear reader, as we begin the year 2023, I would like to encourage you to keep upvoting your favorite surreal images, leaving comments along the way. Make sure you check out Iván's work here, and I hope to see you in the next one. I bid you all a very lovely day or night!
