REVIEW Nov 2024 ‘The Omnipotence of Dream’ at Salford Museum and Art Gallery

Kirsty Jukes

Art historian and writer Kirsty Jukes reviews ‘The Omnipotence of Dream’ at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. Created in response to the 100 year anniversary of André Breton’s writing the ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’, Surrealist works from the Salford Museum and Art Gallery collections are presented alongside commissioned responses. Rarely seen works by Marion Adnams, John Tunnard and others can be considered in fresh contexts alongside work from contemporary artists and students from University of Salford and Leeds Art University. Curated by David Hancock, Paula Chambers, Angela Tait and Dawn Woolley, ‘The Omnipotence of Dream’ is available to view for free until 23 February 2025.

Surrealism rests in the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association neglected heretofore; in the omnipotence of the dream and in the disinterested play of thought. (1) 

15 October 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of André Breton’s ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’. His speech-turned-reference text acts as the blueprint for an art movement that holds enduring popularity to this day. In it, Breton outlines his vision for living a surrealist existence which includes a rejection of rationality in order to access deeper emotions or thoughts, liberation of the mind through dreams as well as using free association and the subconscious in art making. All individuals he names as aligned with Surrealism and its values in the text are exclusively men, and white men at that. This is quite typical of attitudes of the time in that the inclusion of women in many areas was severely limited. Breton himself was well known to have had misogynistic and homophobic views. After serving in the First World War, he returned to France inspired by Sigmund Freud's theories about hysteria and psychoanalysis. This in turn formed the basis for Surrealism and with it, brought limitations to how women and queer people were viewed and depicted.

There was an interest in creating sexualised, fantastical and sometimes derogatory depictions of women in Surrealist artworks which, when considering Breton’s progressive Trotskyist leanings, makes little sense in tandem. We have the key surrealist image of René Magritte’s The Rape (1934) which turns the female form into a fetish. Max Ernst’s image from Une Semaine de Bonté: Book II Water (1934) depicts a woman dressed in a tightly corseted black garment, flesh bare, her face obscured by a shell. This recalls what curator of the 2020 exhibition ‘Fantastic Women. Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo’ Ingrid Pfeiffer stated in saying women were “in many cases, anonymised as ‘the woman,’ a mysterious, desired being.” (2) André Masson's Gradiva  (1939) is a grotesque, rotting woman, supine in its representation of male desire and longing. In Man Ray’s Homage to D.A.F. de Sade (1930) the unconscious – or even lifeless – expression, the apparent decapitation of the female body, and the title’s reference to the controversial Marquis de Sade have been read by some scholars as exemplifying the surrealist fascination with the aestheticisation of violence toward women (3). Hans Bellmer created many works on the subject of twisting the female form painfully and cruelly out of shape. These dolls, or poupées, are maimed sex objects, voyeuristically mastered ‘victims’ as Bellmer describes them, which are not dissimilar to limbless torsos from crime scene photographs. This is not to say that all sexualised imagery of women is damaging. Collaboration and subjective experience can and did create work that gives women agency. By painting their own portraits, women became subjects instead of objects. As Jennifer Higgie puts it “what the Surrealists couldn’t grasp was woman as simply a fellow human being – or as someone who had, say, artistic ambitions herself.” (4) It is surprising how overlooked female Surrealists have been up to now, especially when considering the fact that there were so many of them. Women were active in producing Exquisite Corpse drawings, a game in which automatism, free-play and collaboration were employed, and brought a broader internationalism to Surrealism, helping to expand its global reach.

As David Hancock, curator and exhibiting artist at The Omnipotence of Dream, states “there is an interesting paradox with Surrealism, which is that the movement allowed more women to become prominent artists than any other movement of artists in Modern Art, so I am keen to explore this further and consider what drew women to this movement. I argue that Breton’s definition implies that Female Surrealists were the true Surrealists or natural Surrealists, so their vision for Surrealism is one that is much more relevant today. Therefore, I wanted to re-examine Surrealism’s problematic past and the limitations that Breton established through a lack of inclusivity.” (5) When male Surrealists were not twisting women’s flesh, putting their heads in bell jars or making monsters out of their vaginas, they were putting them on a pedestal. This recalls Romanticist notions of ‘Ideal Woman’ and the hysterical body as described by Freud as being passive-masochistic-submissive. There are elements of fear here too, fear of the unknown, the unattainable and the misunderstood. In his second manifesto of 1929, Breton stated that “the problem of woman is the most marvellous and disturbing problem in all the world” (6). That women were problems to him and his peers only serves to further the idea that women are unequal, something to be picked apart and never to be trusted.

Similarly, attendance to the teachings of Freud bred mistrust in non-heteronormativity. Whilst Freud did posit that all humans begin life as bisexual, he took particular issue with lesbianism. Homosexuality between men was considered one resolution to the oedipal conflict whereas same-sex attraction in women was considered a gateway to mental illness. Hancock adds that “though Breton appears to be intensely homophobic, his wife, Jacqueline Lamba was bisexual and Claude Cahun, a proto non-binary artist, was a close friend of Breton and a member of the movement. There is a sense that Breton was struggling with his prejudices in relation to the theoretical aspects of Surrealism. He wasn't able on a personal level to practice what he preached. And so, Surrealism as a concept requires disentangling from the attitudes and practices of the Surrealists themselves.” (7) The transgender artist and photo-historian, Jordan Reznick also expresses concern that despite Surrealism being “the only major modern art movement to widely experiment with representations of gender variance. Peruse its texts, catalogues, and didactic exhibition labels and you will find derogatory language for intersex people, trans-exclusionary terms for body parts, misgendering of transgender figures, and claims that denigrating representations of gender variant people are celebratory and even feminist” (8). It is difficult to say how much gender and sexual stereotypes in Surrealism as a practice and lifestyle impacted on women, LGBT+ folks and all intersections of the two then. From the distance of time we can but imagine it.

These are just some of the reasons why David Hancock, Paula Chambers, Angela Tait and Dawn Woolley decided to curate ‘The Omnipotence of Dream’ (OoD), a re-examination of Surrealism’s problematic past and a reframing of their methods within current debates around queer, trans and feminist theory. Taking notes from Cecila Alemani’s inspired curation of the 2022 Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams, Hancock and his fellow curators aim to "explore some of the issues that she discussed, how Breton’s vision of Surrealism still remains a possibility. I believe Surrealism still offers a safe space for those on the margins to explore their identity through their art, and this is what I've been looking at in my own work as well.” (9) This exhibition, on display at Salford Museum and Art Gallery (SMAG), is intended as a hopeful and exciting reimagining of the aforementioned restrictive space of Surrealism. As Hancock explains in his unpublished essay Surrealism Beyond Binaries referencing Breton’s liking of the Marvellous as a ruined castle , “For those marginalised from society and excluded from Breton’s original Manifesto, the Marvellous offers the greatest potential: a democratic space whose limits are our own imaginations. It is rich in possibility, functioning outside of markets and economies, with free access to all. The castle is open.” (10) The Marvellous was a pursuit of beauty, a fascination with otherworldly re-enchantment, an existence out of use and time. The Surrealists experienced the marvellous as a kind of jolt or shock, an excitingly disorientating sensation, as though a crack had suddenly opened in the world’s carapace of normality and everything was slipping away (11).

Using this idea as yardstick, OoD is a demonstration of the infinite contemporary possibilities Surrealism can bring. On view are a selection of works from the archive by British Surrealists Marion Adnams, Eileen Agar, Elisabeth Frink and Ann Fordham whose painting ‘Abstraction’ is seen here for the first time since its purchase in the 1950s. Six pieces were chosen in total from the SMAG collection by Hancock after he discovered a trove of Surrealist artworks while undertaking some research. These sit perfectly alongside new work by contemporary artists such as Alana Lake whose uncanny, sculptural installation of large-scale matchsticks in various stages of use Your mouth lit a match (2024) floats in suspension off the gallery wall, tantalising, begging to be touched. Xanthe Burdett’s Parallax (2024) draws on the aesthetics of Eileen Agar’s Room with a view of the Moon (1981) to suggest an exterior world beyond lineated zones, the verdure of a wild creature encroaching on a pale moon. Angela Tait’s For Eileen (2024) consists of 285 kaleidoscopic porcelain shabtis, funerary statues buried with the dead in Ancient Egypt. Laid out like a collection of curiosities, they await Agar’s instruction from the afterlife. Olha Pryymak’s The Necessary Wonder (2023) inspired by Frink’s Harbinger Bird I draws on the mysticism of the Phoenix to create a texturally gorgeous oil on linen still life of a date palm, a keystone species that only blooms in temperatures of more than 50°C.

Fine Art students from University of Salford and Leeds Art University were asked to create individual responses to archive works. The results are wide-ranging and beautiful. Standouts were Harry Mfum’s A time to be born and a time to die (2024), Freya Donald’s Collection (2024) and Mia Buxton’s The Nerves and the Sickness (after Variation on Red) (2024). Each of the responses showed new avenues into surrealist possibilities and represented an exciting look into the future of Surrealist artistic practice. To accompany the exhibition, artists Xhi Ndubisi, Jo Manby and Gary James Williams, alongside AI Baby created Passing Cloud Audio (2024), an audio piece that uses WhatsApp sound samples and spoken text from the Passing Cloud, an experimental serialised journal critiquing AI published monthly on the Fourdrinier, and recordings from William’s archive. These collaged experimental environmental soundscapes merge and interweave with the path of the narration. Somewhat similar to the Surrealist technique of Exquisite Corpse, these call and response texts further enhance the viewing experience of OoD. The exhibition also features a solo display of work by Hancock whose practice uses the motif of the doll as an avatar for alternative personae. Bought as blanks, the dolls are non-binary, dressed up and painted in a form of drag that aligns with Hancock’s personality, tastes, and memories. Unlike Bellmer’s poupées, Hancock gives life and face to his creations rather than removing them. The final artworks are paintings that incorporate each persona into a wider scene, an un-gendered liminal space that gives viewers a surreal sense of unreality.

To further the ideas explored in this exhibition an OoD conference is planned for 12 February 2025 at University of Salford’s New Adelphi Building. This will be an opportunity for discussion around current themes concerning Surrealism. A call for papers (deadline for submissions extended to Friday 22 November) contains a broad range of suggestions from how contemporary theories can enliven our understanding of historical or contemporary surrealist works, such as the Feral, Queer, crip and critical race theories to the relationship between individuals and technologies. This will further broaden the range of insights into this slippery genre.

A point that really stayed in my mind after visiting OoD was how much creatives need the surreal to make sense of a shared reality. As it stands, we have ongoing genocides, the horrors of late-stage capitalism, the collapse of our eco-system, the rise of the far right, a war over the bodies and freedoms of women and queer folks and a general downturn in living standards for everybody in certain wage brackets or geographical location. Alongside engaging with the practicalities of dismantling the system that creates these dismal conditions, Surrealism in a contemporary sense then can act as a mental break, an escape from a world where life is cheap and the lessons we have been taught seem not to mean a thing. An alternative reality in which difference can thrive seems more than appealing for a number of reasons. For those who have the privilege of distance from some or all of the aforementioned events, the ability to access the Marvellous can be life-saving. Nobody can touch the inner worlds we build for ourselves and in solidarity with each other. In the words of Leonora Carrington:

"Do not give up hope entirely in spite of the horror of your situation. I am mobilising all my mental capacities to obtain your unconditional freedom." (12)

All images: David Hancock, The Omnipotence of Dream, 2024 and Kirsty Jukes.

‘The Omnipotence of Dream’ runs until Sunday 23 February 2025 at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The Omnipotence of Dream conference will take place at University of Salford on Wednesday 12 February 2025.

The Omnipotence of Dream Conference: Please submit your abstract (max 300 words) and biography (no more than 100 words) to d.r.hancock@salford.ac.uk by Friday 22 November. Conference papers should be no more than 20 minutes in length.

For further details please see:

https://salfordmuseum.com/event/dream/

Footnotes -

(1)     Andre Breton, What is Surrealism? - What is Surrealism? Andre Breton

(2)     Kate Brown, Surrealism Was a Decidedly Feminine Movement. So Why Have So Many of Its Great Women Artists Been Forgotten? - https://news.artnet.com/art-world/kunsthalle-schirn-surrealist-women-1779669

(3)     For example, in Robert James Belton, The Beribboned Bomb: The Image of Woman in Male Surrealist Art, Calgary: University of Calgary Press (1995)

(4)     Jennifer Higgie, The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (2022), p.114

(5)     Taken from email interview with David Hancock (2024)

(6)     Conley, Kate, and Mahon, Alyce. “The Problem of Woman” in Surrealism (Sept. 2023) - https://doi.org/10.1353/ijs.2023.a908032

(7)     Email interview, David Hancock (2024)

(8)     J. Reznick, Dismembered Muses and Mirrors that Bite, p.374

(9)     Email interview, David Hancock (2024)

(10)  Dr David Hancock, Surrealism Beyond Binaries (2024) p.2

(11) Conley and Mahon. “The Problem of Woman” in Surrealism - https://doi.org/10.1353/ijs.2023.a908032

(12) Leonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet, Penguin Modern Classics (2005), p.138