A Surrealistic experience – and 3 degrees of separation.
The Digger and I spent the weekend in Manchester so that we could visit an Exhibition of Women Surrealist painters. The show was called Angels of Anarchy. There is a gardening theme in this post so bear with me.
Surrealism was a movement in art and literature launched in Paris in 1924. It was dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed to the artist in dreams and the subconscious. This would allow real life to be viewed in very unconventional ways.
Angels of Anarchy
The Surrealists loved taking everyday objects and presenting them in a radical manner. Imagine a teacup and saucer made of animal fur or a sofa in the shape of a pair of red lips. There were many paintings showing every fear or desire that might lurk in our subconscious. Of course Surrealism is much more complex that that but this gives you a flavour of what the exhibition was all about. It was excellent by the way, well worth visiting.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this work by Meret Oppenheim. Before leaving for Manchester I had been down the garden chasing a squirrel away from the bird feeders. Now in the middle of the art exhibition I am looking at a Surrealistic Squirrel!
A Surrealist Squirrel
On arriving back home I sat down at the computer to write this post. My feet touched something soft under the chair.
I glanced down.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Dead Squirrel!
The actual evidence has been removed. The above photograph is only a representation of the terrible discovery.
You will have to imagine my scream of horror!
Halki the cat 1 ………Squirrel 0
(The Surrealistic Squirrel picture was taken from the exhibition catalogue we bought. I hope no one objects to me showing this)
10 comments
Yuk!!
Oh my…These gifts of love are often hard to accept~gail
Ugh, that find was more of a realistic kind, wouldn’t you say? So glad I don’t have squirrels in my garden as some of my cats are very good hunters.
Poor you to have to find and get rid of that ‘present’. I hope Santa brings you nicer gifts. ;-)
How horrible! I like the idea of the drawing to tell us what happened.
That surrealist squirrel is eye-catching! Anything to do with the term reminds me of the painting of Dali’s limp watch. You know how some images remain in your mind… Angels of Anarchy must’ve been very interesting!
Thank you so much, EG for sparing us the real thing! The drawing was inspired, and definitely captured the essence of the experience. Eww, I would imagine you had to go wash your feet too. But the art show looks way cool. :-)
Frances
I heard your scream from here. Hope that you have recovered from the shock. I think that I would be a gibbering wreck if it had happened to me. I have watched visiting neighbourhood cats eye up squirrels in the garden and have wondered who would come out best. Now I know :)
I think your squirrel story is officially un-toppable. How “nice” of your kitty to leave you such a lovely, er, present, and it’s not even Christmas yet…
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
I had seen the Oppenheim fur teacup but never the squirrel piece. That is so cool!
Whoops, messed up that URL and forgot to fix it despite your kind reminder. Here, all better now.
PS You are right about that glowing orb in my post today – lamp, not moon! I didn’t specify and was curious whether people would notice.
argh – my comment got gobbled up by the ether and now I cannot remember what I wrote :(
K
Having just read Karen’s sequence, I’m wondering if your blog is being sucked into that unreal . . . is it here . . . is it not world.
The officially surreal squirrel made me laugh – which disqualifies it, I reckon. Your written note is much closer to the real thing. It looks like a death threat. Creepy!
Lucy
Leave a Comment