Dada/Surrealism:
Back to the Future
Gene Provenzo
provenzo@miami.edu
|
An Exhibit for Black Swan Books and Records |
This exhibit has four elements: 1. an assemblage/sculpture titled “Dada Typewriter”; 2. a collection of Neo-Dada collages; 3. a series of collages that build on the collages of the German/American artist Max Ernst (1891-1976)), titled “Max Ernst Redux;” and; 4. a collection of collages titled “Modern and Postmodern Collages.”
The first element of the exhibit, the “Dada Typewriter” is inspired, in part, by Raul Hausmann’s 1919 assemblage/sculpture, “The Spirit of Our Times.” The piece is intended to elicit the process of thought undergone by the French artist and critique, Andre Breton ( 1896-1966), as he formulated his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto. In addition to references to a hobby horse (literally Dada in German), the piece includes a typewriter with only the letters D and A, as well angel wings (inspiration) and a bronze Eiffel Tower (overarching view), there is a video player that presents key visual and text elements from the work of Dada and Surreal theorists.
Element 2, Neo-Dadaist collages includes collages that draw extensively on Dadaist symbols and themes; Element 3 includes collages (“Max Ernst Redux”) that literally build new collages on the collages created for Max Ernst’s 1934 graphic novel, Une Semine de Bonte (A Week of Kindness); Element 4, Modern and Postmodern Collages brings to the exhibit a more contemporary set of ideas and images.
Note: This installation displays various Dadaist symbols, images and texts. The head is imagined as a carapace of the head of Andre Breton. Strictly speaking it is not meant as a bust or sculpture of him, but instead a shell of his remains and thoughts.
Neo-Dada Collages
