Surrealism Was a Muse to Me

Abstract

Surrealism Was a Muse to Me Penny Slinger The surrealist view of woman was primarily as the muse, essential in bringing inspiration to the male surrealist artists. That is why, early in my artistic career, I decided to be my own muse. I did not wish to step down from the role of muse. I was happy to continue to inspire others. But more than that, I wanted to be my own inspiration and see the work I created viewed on par with the work of male artists. I saw nothing in the work I made that rendered it less vital, less original, less creative, less relevant, or less well executed than anything produced by the male of the species. At first, I did not want my work to be identified as being made by a female, so I would sign my work just “Slinger.” As I perceived the boys to be my competition as a student, I wanted my work to be compared to theirs rather than to that of the other female students. As time went on I found my voice as an artist to be truly married to the fact that I was a woman. Dealing with issues that affected me as a woman artist and as a woman in society in general was important for my work. Therefore I began to claim my right to a prominent position in the art world in relation to my rights as a woman. I felt that my sex was not a detriment but an asset, as I could traverse virgin territory and establish something new [End Page 83] rather than travel the well-beaten path. I have always seen myself as an innovator, and being a woman artist of stature as being an innovation in itself. Surrealism is very much a movement and a way of thinking that unites the conscious and the unconscious realms. Put another way, you could say it unites the male and female aspects of the self. As such, the boxes that separate the genders should ideally be smashed by the surrealist ethic and the full androgyny of self be allowed free reign. Anyone who is unable to grasp that concept as central to the surrealist sensibility has no right to call themselves a surrealist. Surrealism is about probing the inner worlds— the sur (above and beyond) realism. In the realm of the psyche the archetypes play. They are not limited to male or female identities. They are all of it, and animal, bird, and other creatures too. Max Ernst certainly portrayed that in his creation of the bird Loplop as his alter ego. So, where the surrealists in the heyday of their movement may have missed the point a little as to the real inclusivity and dissolving of barriers—between worlds and between sexes—that the surrealist perspective represents, we can continue the incentive beyond its historical inception. We can see Surrealism as a timeless approach to art and life, which can guide us to keep opening new vistas in our psyches, add new colors to our palettes, new depths to our investigations. When I found such a mine of inspiration in the collage books of Max Ernst, it inspired me, not to create more of the same but to use the tools of Surrealism to probe my own inner worlds and to express them from a woman’s perspective. In this way, Surrealism was in fact a muse to me and prompted me to become my own muse. May it do so for the many women it touches, and may come to touch, in its wake and in its swell. The art of London-born, LA-based artist p e nn y slinger (b. 1947) spans photography, collage, film, and sculpture. Slinger graduated from the Chelsea School of Art in London in 1969, having [End Page 84] developed a visual language she described as “feminist Surrealism.” Influenced by her study of European Surrealism, especially Max Ernst, and her friendship with Roland Penrose, she explores the feminine psyche in her work, often using her own body to examine the relationship between sexuality, mysticism, and femininity. Her art has been shown in numerous group exhibitions...