Inspiraton // Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter. He is often known for his striking and bizarre images in his work. 

 'The Persistence of Memory' (1931) is one of his most famous works. Many of the surrealist elements that are visible within are associated with erotically explicit objects, dreamlike states, hallucinations, and lonliness. Much of this is created through Dali's precision in rendering unidentifiable objects and his use of space and light, often creating deep and receding spaces with unknown light sources. 

Symbolism was explored thoroughly throughout his work. For example, the meting watch is said to suggests Einstein's theory that time is relative and not fixed.Equally, animals reocurr within his work, ants suggest death, deay and immense sexual desire; elephants are to distort space and locusts symbolise waste and fear.

"I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly." Salvador Dalí, in Dawn Ades, Dalí and Surrealism.

Salvador Dalí, La Conquête de l'irrationnel (Paris: Éditions surréalistes, 1935)

Inspiration // Dadism

Dadaism was a movement that involved art and literature and concerned itself with anti-war politics via methods of 'anti-art', the antithesis of art. It ignored aesthetics and intended to offend. Dadaism blamed the reason and logic of bourgeois capitalist society that had led to war. As a result, their work often expressed the idea of rejection of logic and embrace chaos and irrationality.

Dada often used public gathering, demonstrations and publishing art/literary journals with passionate coverage of art, politics and culture. Dadism later influenced the avant-garde, surrealism and pop art.

Marcel Duchamp, 1917, Fountain. Ceramic, glazed ceramic,

61 cm x 36 cm x 48 cm,

Tate Modern

"Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism"

(Marc Lowenthal, translator's introduction to Francis Picabia's I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, And Provocation)

Marcel Duchamp, 1919, Mona Lisa parody "LHOOQ". Post card reproduction with added moustache, goatee and title in pencil, 19.7 x 12.4 cm

So how does this fit within our ideas for our zine? Zine's ignore the aesthetics and traditions of normal publishing and magazines; they are low cost, self distributed, no capitalist element etc. Therefore, it could be argued that Zines are almost a Dadaist version of magazines. However, Dadaism comes into our zines as it is seen as a movement that influenced Surrealism, something I am exploring for the design of my pages for the zine and perhaps other pages too.

 Richter, Hans (1965), Dada: Art and Anti-art, Oxford Univ Press
  Marc Lowenthal, translator's introduction to Francis Picabia's I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, And Provocation

Inspiration // Surrealism

Surrealism originated in the 1900s, specifically the 1910s and 1920s, as a literary movement experimenting with 'automatism'. This was a mode of expression that sought to release the imagination of the subconscious. It was officially consecrated in Paris in 1924 with the publication of the 'Manifesto of Surrealism' by Andre Breton. This allowed Surrealism to become international intellectual and political force.

As Surrealism began as a literary movement, much of the poetry and prose were influenced by pyschologial theories and dream studies of Sigmund Freud in combination with political ideas of Marxism. Breton and his contemporaries drew upon ideas of the private world of the mind, the part of the mind that is traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations which creating unexpected imagery. 

Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915–23; Philadelphia Museum of Art)

At first, Surrealist poets were reluctant to align themselves with visual artists because they believed that laborious processes of painting, drawing and sculpture were not spontaneous. However, artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp were held in high regard for their work was analytical, provocative and erotic. For example, Duchamp's conceptually complex Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) was admired by Surrealists and often thought to be a precursor of Surrealism for its bizarrely juxtaposed and erotically charged objects.

Max Ernst, André Masson and Man Ray were of the first artists who aligned themselves with Surrealism. All these artists use curving, continuous lines and forms in which emerge strange figures and shapes that are products of the 'uninhibited mind'.

The Workshop of Dedulas - Andre Masson (1939)

Ernst began to experiment with two unpredictable processes called decalcomania and grattage. Decalcomania is the technique of pressing a sheet of paper onto a painted surface and peeling it off again, while grattage is the process of scraping pigment across a canvas that is laid on top of a textured surface. These techniques are evident within The Barbarians (1937).

Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale. 1924. Oil on wood with wooden elements. 69.8 x 57.1 x 11.4 cm. The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, NY, USA.

Additionally, this composition of sparring anthropomorphic figures in a deserted postapocalyptic landscape exemplifies the recurrent themes of violence and annihilation found in Surrealist art. Something we could use within our own zines for one of our topic is Death Row.

Surrealist painting are often associated with erotically explicit objects juxtaposed in dreamlike surroundings, unidentifiable objects that have been rendered with great precision, hallucinatory visions, deep receding spaces, a mysterious use of light as well as often a sense of loneliness.

The Print Fair #2 : What I Bought

At the Print Fair I managed to accumulate a fair amount of goodies for about under £10. (Another thing I liked about the fair - the prices were student friendly and not about making profits.)

I picked up these goodies, some of the artists however I didn't manage to get their name or details but I picked up a fair amount of business cards. These themselves were beautiful and allows me to follow up some of these artists. For more artists, this article by Manchester's Finest highlights some of them!

I then picked up a few zines to see how different they could be and find similarities between them.

I picked up "Twenty Two" by 2022NQ themselves. I'm not sure if this is a zine but it fulfill the criteria: it's free, low production costs, lack of capitalism etc. I really enjoy this read as it fills you in on going on in Manchester from art to music to literature to photography - just about everything! I love the graphic design of the magazine too - it's contemporary, creative and easy to read.The fact its free is an added bonus!

 

Corridor8 is a four part guide to a guide to contemporary visual art in the North of England. I purchased  Part 3 as it featured Manchester Art School. This publication (I say publication as opposed to Zine as they do no consider themselves as a Zine and the production does not seem low cost) but takes a more educational turn looking at Northern Art Schools and articles on Art Education.

 

Vapid Kitten is a women's zine, a feminist's zine. This particular issue focuses on beauty and what beauty means. It features creative writings, essays, for example questioning where the women artist is in history, and illustrations. I really enjoyed this one as I consider myself a feminist. Although not a strong feminist, I do believe in women's rights - especially after the Jane Doe case in America. This was such a lovely way to present arguments and was easy to read and follow as well as presenting valid debates.

The Print Fair #1: 2022NQ

On Saturday, I attended the Print Fair at 2022NQ in The Northern Quarter. I'd never been to an event like this before so I didn't really know what to expect

It was a lot more intimate, and a lot smaller, than I thought it was going to be. I really enjoyed the fact that this event brought together a community of people and local artists. People chatted away with strangers and bonded over Kopperberg and the prints they bought. I may have got sucked in and bought a few things but I really enjoy the "handmade" and independent work. This was one of the things I enjoyed the most - there was no commercial aspect, yet there was a sort- of capitalist aspect in making money, but this was mostly to fund making more prints and further their work rather than making a profit.

This made me reflect upon the Zine fair and I think it'd be nice to create a community similar to the Print Fair. It's nice to see people interested in a less mainstream thing come together and enjoy the handmade and the lack of commercialism. As 2022NQ is one of the contenders for the Zine Fair, it was a good chance to see the space. Although small, it helped create the intimate atmosphere and a buzz of creativity.

A useful list of illustrators, artists, zinesters etc is available here.

Zine Inspiration

This zine by Laura Braun was a personal favourite from the Salford Zine Library. It shows her journey from England to Portugal and back in November 2007 - June 2008 through a line of several film photographs printed onto cardstock. Furthermore, it has a dedication:

"To my parents, Petra and Thomas, who taught me how to travel."

It is this personal element and its format that I like. I feel more connected to the zine and the photos are taken from a perspective that almost make me feel like I could be stood there taking that photo myself. Additionally, this personal element creates a sense of the maker's identity and also memories; 

subjects I am very interested in.

For my own zine(s), I'd like to explore ideas about memories perhaps in relation to my own hypothetical exhibition proposal from the previous Framings unit and explore the idea of identity and memory through wardrobes and clothing. My initial ideas are something along the lines of an exhibition guide like zine for my hypothetical exhibition.