A century after the publication of the First Manifesto of Surrealism, the revolutionary art movement thrives as a potent force in shaping contemporary culture. Throughout the year, the world embraced the opportunity to honor surrealism’s centenary, with a vibrant array of exhibitions, conferences and creative projects.
As we prepare to unveil The Debutante Issue 04 in early 2025, our editorial team looks back on the year’s feminist-surrealist highlights – celebrating the transformative endeavor of reexamining surrealism through the lens of women’s perspectives.
Rachel Ashenden on Exorcism: Inside Out at Richard Saltoun Gallery
Penny Slinger juxtaposes the dark and playful aspects of twentieth-century surrealism with a radical advocation for women's liberation. At Richard Saltoun Gallery in London, her provocative photomontage series, An Exorcism, unfolded as an epic psychodrama, drawing viewers into a visceral exploration of the artist's psyche. Exorcism: Inside Out was a theatre of transformation, accentuating the tension between subconscious desires and the chains of convention. Coinciding with the exhibition, Fulgur Press released a new edition of An Exorcism (originally published in 1977), expanded with new images and narrative by Slinger that speaks to the feminist-surrealist themes of the book.
Molly Gilroy on The Deep Green Sea by Kelsey Ashe
I felt compelled to read Kelsey Ashe’s exquisitely illustrated The Deep Green Sea looking out onto crashing waves; one hand holding the novella, the other twisting through sand. Indeed, Ashe writes in intoxicating ebbs and flows, as if she is writing from the sea-bed itself. Metaphysical, ecological, feminist, surrealist, mythological, spiritual; Ashe intersects literature and art in celestial meditation (Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington almost becoming visual prologues) as we travel to an Antipodean shore of selkies and Acolytes. There's a surreal luminosity to Ashe's futuristic world-building, whilst she traverses myth, allegory and contemporary ecological thinking with poetic touch. In the words of Mirage Acolyte Orla, ‘it made my breath skip’. I urge you to spend time on this novella; ‘all departures can be delayed’.
Tasmin Petrie on The Tower Reversed: The Tarot as Form and Symbol at Casa Encendida Madrid
How can the Tarot be used as a tool to expand our consciousness and build alternative worldviews? These questions, which have been at the core of feminist-surrealist occult investigation, are explored in La Torre Invertida. The Tower Reversed: The Tarot as Form and Symbol is a multidisciplinary exhibition at Casa Encendida Madrid (on until 5 January 2025). Presenting the myriad forms and symbolism within the Tarot, the exhibition is a reminder that the Tarot is in constant evolution, shaped by each artist's own subjective interpretation of its visual language, displayed in the works of Betye Saar, Niki de Sant Phalle, Agnes Varda and more. y
Rochelle Roberts on The Medium by Alice Walter
Earlier this year, I read the beautiful and heartbreaking book The Medium by the
artist, writer and medium Alice Walter, published by Book Works. In this surreal tale, we follow the dual voice of the protagonist, a medium who has spent her whole life at the mercy of the dead, perpetually misunderstood and outcast by strangers, as well as the people who are supposed to love her. Straddling the murky in-between of the dead and the living, the protagonist finds herself slipping closer and closer to the side of the dead, all the while trying to be a vehicle for good. This melancholy, and uniquely experimental work of fiction pushes the boundaries of what a novel can be, all the while probing deeper and deeper into the relationship between magic, contemporary society, mental health and the ways in which a person can be pushes to the limits by forces beyond their control.
movements of the twentieth century.
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