Need Help, Oh Artsy Ones!
 

My first AfterEffects project has to be surrealist. I have to bring in at least five surrealist assets (photos, video shots, sounds, etc.) and compose them into a video piece.

I love art, really I do, but I just don't "get" surrealism. I find it strange and somewhat disturbing at times.

So, I know a lot of you here are very artsy types, and I'm hoping that some of you would mind explaining surrealism in idiot language so I can hopefully understand it.

What is it? Symbolism? What? My brain gets mushy even trying to think of it. (Actually, maybe that could be my first project - showing an open skull with mashed potatoes oozing through the eye sockets or something. Did I just "get it" with that idea?)

So, um.... help please! :blush:

Boy, this thread could turn into a doctoral thesis.

There are a LOT of answers. But to me, the most interesting aspect of surrealism is the blurring of lines between medium, content, and meaning.

For example, this iconinc piece from Marcel Duchamp:



It translates of course to "This is not a pipe," and seems to present a puzzling paradox. It is a pipe, yet it's not, but it is but it isn't. But is it? Isn't it just a painting of a pipe? Or, getting even further into it, you could look at it and say "This is not a pipe" refers not to the image of the pipe, but to the words themselves, posing no paradox whatsoever.

Similar sorts of mental gymnastics are presented by MC Escher. His exploitation of the limitations of 2-D representations of 3-D structures create seeming paradoxes. Images that do not violate any law of graphic perspective, yet cannot possibly exist. Or can they? Here's a video demonstrating the reversal of the visual exploitation that Escher relied on.

But that's just one aspect of surrealism. Dali represents a different idea of surrealism. Less about word play and illusion, more about fantasy. Creation of impossible realms with symbolism that challenges the standard definitions of how to use symbolism. But of course they are related in that the visions he creates "can't possibly exist", and yet, there they are, existing in painting form. It's not the same kind of impossibility that Escher presents, but it still begs the essential question of what is impossible if we can imagine it and visualize it.

Or take the amateurs route (AKA "The Street Fair School") to surrealism:

1. Do or make something that makes no sense.
2. Look smug when presenting it.
3. Act superior to those who would question its merits as art.

Now you're confusing abstract with surreal.

René Magritte, actually.

No the key is "doesn't make sense." The Street Fair School of Abstract Art is:


1. Do or make something that people can't tell what it is.
2. Look smug when presenting it.
3. Act superior to those who would question its merits as art.

*thwap* Sorry, wires crossed.

Surrealism was first and foremost a philosophical concept that was interpreted through aesthetics. Andre' Breton was the "founder" of surrealism with his 1924 "Surrealist Manifesto" (which is actually a great read!).

The term surrealism can also be stated as "super real". The visual interpretations take ideas and concepts beyond the concrete, the known reality unto the unknown. This is done through juxtaposition of everyday visuals in incongruious or unreal settings.

The roots of Surrealism grew out of the exploration of the Freudian unconscious in response to rational thinking that many artists thought caused the horror of destruction of WWI. The movement grew out of the Dada movement and artists such as Marcel Duchamp.

Surrealism continues to exists in modern film and literature with Miazaki, Hitchcock (watch the Spellbound dream sequence directed by Dali), and with authors who add elements of magical realism like Garcia Marquez, Rushdie, Murakami, and Allende.

Artists to look at for inspiration include Dali, Magritte, Earnst, Tanguy, Arp, De Chirico, Miro and photographer May Ray. My personal favorites are Magritte, and Man Ray. Also, take a look at Hieronymus Bosch who proceeded Surrealism by over 400 years but whose art is definitely Surrealist in nature.

VAM. ROFLMAO!!! Love it. According to Alex's rules, I can just take a decapitated mannequin, add a watermelon to the top of its neck, place it on a giant toothbrush that is floating in the middle of the ocean with a giant eyeball overhead with sunbeams emitting from its iris. And then title it something like, "Humanity".

Thanks for the insights so far, GD and NA. I'll look at some of those works for general ideas hopefully without losing my mind in the process. Feel free to keep "dumbing it down" for me. I look at most Dali works with "WTF". ;)

I look at Dali with WTF too. (I'm not a fan.) I find Man Ray and Magritte to be more provocative.