Surreal Things
Surreal Things, a show highlighting the decorative and commercial arts side of the surrealist movement, be seen until the end of August at the newly Gehry-fied Art Gallery of Ontario. First mounted by the V&A in London and slightly reconstituted for its run here, it traces the diffusion of surrealist imagery from avant garde to high culture to high fashion. First on display are the original costumes designed by Giorgio de Chirico for a 1929 ballet choreographed by Diaghilev. At its debut, protesters led by Andre Breton and Louis Aragon, self-appointed ideological enforcers of the movement’s Marxist component, disrupted the performance, objecting to the obvious commercial sell-out inherent in designing for a dance production.
The show goes on to encompass objects shown at iconic early surrealist shows, including Duchampian ready-mades, Man Ray’s famous nail-studded iron (The Gift) and a Dali jacket covered with drinking glasses and straws, which its original viewers were invited to sip intoxicating beverages from.
Surrealist perfume bottles and gowns created in collaboration with Elsa Schiaparelli accompany a display on the movement’s psychosexual obsession with mannequins. Items of jewelry, many designed by Dali, include his famous lips pin. As is the case in other movements, women surrealists carve out a niche for themselves on the decorative arts side of the equation while the men write manifestos and struggle for dominance over paintings, photography and sculpture.
Magazine covers and posters from an English Shell Oil campaign show the early adoption of surrealist tropes into advertising art. A wall of biomorphic paintings stands opposite a display of furniture and design elements inspired by the same shapes.
The show concerns itself only with contemporaneous connections between the movement and pop culture, so the film loops include clips from Spellbound but doesn’t extend into the ubiquitous use of surrealism in music videos.
Completing the progression from subversion to commercialism, the show exits you into the obligatory gift shop. Of the kitschier items on sale, most riff on Dali and his work. This is entirely in keeping with his pioneering role as a shameless commodifier of his own name and artistic output.