Ostalo
https://doi.org/10.38003/ccsr.2.1-2.6
Jean Painlevé’s Surrealism, Marine Life and Non-Ocular Modes of Sensing
Christina Heflin
; Royal Holloway University of London
Sažetak
The obsessive representation of and violence against the eye is inescapable in surrealist
art, with works like Un Chien andalou and Histoire de l’oeil being the most renowned for
their depictions of acts of ocular defilement. Over the years, scholars have questioned
these artists’ intentions and have even gone so far as to position them as anti-ocular.
Compromising the physical integrity of the eye is not necessarily an outright rejection
of vision, as Martin Jay claims. Instead, it questions the hierarchy of the senses and
promotes an enrichment of different sensory modes. The use of marine animals in
surrealism seen in works by artists like Jean Painlevé represents beings which rely on
other modes of sensing, thus navigating their worlds without visual primacy. I argue
they are not anti-ocular but anti-ocularcentristic. Surrealism’s depictions of marine
life reflect an interest in alternative sensory regimes and rejects the primacy of vision
above other senses. These representations express a desire to move beyond the eye to
expand perception and explore faculties of perception denied to the human eye. Moreover,
these works also challenge other concepts such as gender roles, anthropocentrism/the
human-animal boundary and C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures Theory.
Ključne riječi
surrealism, marine biology, modernism, anthropocentrism, Jean Painlevé
Hrčak ID:
328097
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.1.2020.
Posjeta: 340 *