Afrosurrealism and Us
In her essay “Surrealism and Us,” Suzanne Césaire, a Martinican writer, educator, and political activist, critiqued surrealism from a postcolonial perspective.
Surrealism, she wrote in her 1943 essay, works to free the mind from the “shackles of absurd logic and so-called Western reason.”
The Modern’s Surrealism and Us features 80 artworks from the 1940s to today, spanning painting, sculpture, drawing, video, and installation. The exhibition explores how Caribbean and Black artists have reinterpreted European surrealism through their lenses of aesthetics, Afrosurrealism, and Afrofuturism.
Collaborative artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s hyper-realistic blossoms fill the floor of one room. The pink, white, and orange flowers are disarming in their idyllic loveliness (interspersed are darker, decaying blossoms). The artwork, fabricated from PVC, is a reminder of the fragility of the Caribbean’s equatorial ecosystem.
Hew Locke’s sculpture depicts Queen Elizabeth II via plastic toys and trinkets. The Queen’s visage is barely discernible as tendrils of mossy vines droop over her crown and down toward her neck. The mocking image is matter-of-fact.
Benny Andrew’s Many Sins flips the aspirational narrative of economic progress often peddled in the West. A dozen brown-skinned men and women lie inconsolable on the ground, surrounded by lush greenery. Above them, nude white men and women raise one another, forming human scaffolding to support one lone man holding a red and blue flag upward. Above the entanglement of bodies are six white angels flying around a mushroom cloud.
Stanley Greaves’ The Apotheosis: There Is A Meeting Here Tonight Series is stark and packed with unbridled cynicism. The title suggests a ceremonial elevation of a mortal to an exalted or deified state, and the elements in the work convey as much through dark gray hues. There is little that could be said to be hopeful in the stark image as dozens of dark dogs gather to hear a black pup being lifted high above them by the silhouette of a black man. In staying with the themes of Surrealism and Us, Greaves’ work subverts notions that those placed in power inherently possess virtue or worthiness.
Stay Social with Sounds Modern
The Modern’s live music series continues June 29 with Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Composers.