The Traumatic Surreal
The exhibition brings together sculptures and films made between 1964 and 2017 that explore women鈥檚 experiences in this context, using surrealist traditions to critique and subvert patriarchal constructions of women as 鈥榦bjects鈥�.
Repeated motifs such as cages, an insistent concern with animal characteristics such as fur and feathers, and a questioning of the conventional association between women and domesticity indicate how women surrealists critiqued these restrictive and oppressive conditions.
The Traumatic Surreal addresses the complex legacy of geographically specific historical events that have impacted in powerful and long-lasting ways on women鈥檚 experience. In German-speaking countries the period following World War II was 鈥� and still is 鈥� deeply scarred by the events of the war and the fascist and Nazi ideologies that caused them, particularly in relation to the social construction, positioning and objectification of women.
The exhibition shows how surrealist traditions continue to provide these artists with productive forms through which these, and other, traumatic residues might be represented and negotiated. Embracing the capacity of surrealist art to shock or challenge, these artists show the continuing relevance of Surrealism鈥檚 disruptive potential.
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The exhibition brings together sculptures and films made between 1964 and 2017 that explore women鈥檚 experiences in this context, using surrealist traditions to critique and subvert patriarchal constructions of women as 鈥榦bjects鈥�.
Repeated motifs such as cages, an insistent concern with animal characteristics such as fur and feathers, and a questioning of the conventional association between women and domesticity indicate how women surrealists critiqued these restrictive and oppressive conditions.
The Traumatic Surreal addresses the complex legacy of geographically specific historical events that have impacted in powerful and long-lasting ways on women鈥檚 experience. In German-speaking countries the period following World War II was 鈥� and still is 鈥� deeply scarred by the events of the war and the fascist and Nazi ideologies that caused them, particularly in relation to the social construction, positioning and objectification of women.
The exhibition shows how surrealist traditions continue to provide these artists with productive forms through which these, and other, traumatic residues might be represented and negotiated. Embracing the capacity of surrealist art to shock or challenge, these artists show the continuing relevance of Surrealism鈥檚 disruptive potential.
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