on surrealism

published: 2024.10.13
tagged: girlblogging
by mana

now playing – Strawby Computer Entertainment Europe by Strawberry Station

lately, I’ve been reading Shimeji Simulation almost nonstop (and am currently on chapter 34), so I thought today I’d talk about surrealist media and how much I love it.

Thinking on it more intently, I’m noticing a pattern that some of my favorite media is pretty surrealist/dreamlike in nature. I mean, I knew this already from being in art classes in school; I always loved artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte (The Son of Man and The Persistence of Memory being some of my favorite paintings of all time). I also really enjoy expressionist and post-impressionist painters like Marc Chagall and Vincent van Gogh. There’s always been something rather alluring about the subjective nature of art: almost as if you are given a lens to be able to see the world as someone else sees it. This change in perspective opens your eyes to new experiences and ways of thinking.

Anyway, I knew that I loved this kind of art when I was in school and taking art history classes, but I never gave much thought to more “modern” artforms and how they might be classified according to those same parameters. Art that fit into a classification felt like something reserved strictly for textbooks, and not applicable to modern media.

Ever since I saw my first David Lynch film, (1984’s Dune, btw) I became obsessed with learning more about this man and exposing myself to more of his art. I learned shortly after of Twin Peaks and consumed it voraciously with my partner, and we would discuss episodes at length. I’d never seen anything so thought-provoking that I could recall.

I learned about his fascination with transcendental meditation and the language of dreams and began consuming his other films like a starved person. I couldn’t get enough. Everything I saw that he touched seemed so interesting and thought-provoking…I’d only been exposed to films growing up that were very simplistic and spoon-fed you the plot - the usual fare: The Wizard of Oz, Disney films, easily digestible things aimed at children. And while I definitely enjoyed the fantastical and imaginative worlds created within these works, I’d never been so struck by having to figure out what happened on my own in a film.

I was always fascinated with art classes and it was easily my favorite subject in school, and I even majored in art in University (before I dropped out). Never before had I considered that film could be art. I know this is pretty common knowledge for most people, but I was a rather sheltered child and my parents didn’t expose us to much; my siblings and I were mostly left to discover things on our own. Having strict restrictions placed on what we were allowed to watch on tv (mostly just PBS), most of my exploration came from my father’s early adoption of the Internet or from reading books at the public library.

We were the first family in my small town (population of ~1000 in the 90’s when I lived there) to get an internet connection in 1997 or so. It was, of course a dialup connection, whatever was available pre-56k (I think 12.8kbps? I don’t remember, it’s been so long ago). It may have even been earlier, this time period is pretty fuzzy for me.

But anyway, most of my exposure to interesting things was in school, then I’d go home and read more about the stuff I found most interesting online or look it up in the school or public library. Back then, the net was a little harder to navigate, because indexing search engines like google weren’t really around yet…ah, so maybe it was 1995/1996! Because I do remember swapping from using Yahoo! search to altavista, and then google became the new cool thing to use, and it worked really well (nowhere near the bloated, ad-infested pile of privacy-disrespecting crap it is today). Bweh, not the point >w<;;

But I got really into art and making art, I took ceramics courses, and was fascinated by the idea that I could get my own meaning (or even make my own meaning) out of art. That there was no right or wrong answer, it was subjective.

I became entranced by art that made me think of my own dreams. I’ve long been fascinated by dreams and the odd “logic” of dreams. And art that evokes that feeling of “am I dreaming right now?” has always really entranced me.

So, upon seeing this sort of imagery in something so…modern? Made in the last 50 or so years…not from a history textbook…made me feel alive. I felt inspired by the endless possibilities. I wanted to make art like this. I still want to make art like this.

Recently, while unpacking, I came across a box of sculptures I made in 7th and 8th grade, from when I was taking a ceramics class in school and I was struck by the odd wavelike shapes I had made…I remember most of the other students were making things like cups and bowls, or figurines, sculpting things they saw or used in everyday life. I was just shaping clay by feeling…emptying my mind and opening myself to the possibility of its shape. It made me feel like I was dreaming.

Watching Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, and even Blue Velvet made me feel the same way. Seeing Magritte and van Gogh and Dali’s works made me feel the same way. And now, reading Shimeji Simulation and staring at tsukimizu’s art makes me feel that same pull toward the world of dreaming. Even video games - like Yume Nikki and Ib capture this same feeling. And I am obsessed with it.

What art, if any, speaks to you? Not just is visually appealing, or funny, or mesmerizing; but makes you feel something deep inside of yourself? I want to cultivate this feeling more into my everyday life.