Redefining Social Surrealism: Bio-Surrealism

Simon Sabalaucas, Open Road (1937). View full-size image

Redefining social surrealism is not meant to subvert its original implications, significance, or origin; rather, it is meant to bring the term into a modern context. The process of redefinition begins with an observation of how surrealism has changed in the past ninety years. From the beginning, surrealism expressed artists’ criticism of contemporary society based on conscious and unconscious influences. In addressing political and social issues, as well as national problems such as unemployment, poverty, and workers’ rights, surrealists were blamed for attacking the “exploitation of the middle class and the greed and corruption of the middle class” (Fort). In the time since the 1930s, America has shifted toward other social and political issues that surrealists focus on today, specifically climate change.

“Bio-Surrealism,” is the redefined, modern term for this ever-changing cultural movement. This type of surrealism incorporates similar artistic qualities as the Social Surrealism of the 1930s due to its focus upon major issues of our time. However, unlike Social Surrealism, bio-surrealism is not focused upon Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis and continually looking backward for retrospective analysis; instead, bio-surrealism offers the chance to look forward to contemporary issues, beyond the self and the human body.Thus, artists have begun to reject the social aspects of surrealism, replacing them with environmental concerns, while still holding true to traditional surrealist techniques.

Simon Sabalaucas' Open Road (1937) establishes the relationship of humanity with nature as a human-like figure, alongside a dog-like caricature, camouflages into the landscape. The surreal depiction of natural camouflage parallels to the troubled times of the 1930s. During and after the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, people lost hope and confidence; the American people and the economy seemed to be fading or evaporating into nothingness, just as the human-like figure appears to be in Sabalaucas’ painting.

Duy Huynh, 1975. "Vietnamese painter, creates his own narratives of the human condition with ethereal characters maintaining a serene, precarious balance, often in a surreal or dreamlike setting" (Tutt'art@). 

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As we turn to more modern artists, Duy Huynh’s work significantly stands out. Huynh's painting is a prime example of bio-surrealism, as it incorporates the original surrealist quality of stemming from the artists' imagination, rather than his conscious thoughts. However, Huynh integrates a modern twist to his piece by depicting deforestation, air pollution, and climate change. The tree stump, dust, and the foggy sky are juxtaposed with the beautiful and colorful plants and animals emerging from the man’s tuba to create a dreamlike setting.

As our society enters the Anthropocene, the newest phase in the history of the planet, in which, as Timothy Morton states, “humans are the major cause of the earth’s current transformation,” we also notice a shift in the conscious and unconscious influences of surrealists. These surrealist influences now come from the understanding and observations of our withering planet, which we continue to harm through an endless list of abuses such as deforestation, CO2 emission, light pollution, oil spillage, and overpopulation.

Motoichi “Roy” Kadowaki's painting Japanese Garden, located in the New Deal Gallery depicts surrealism with a different technique, using a still-life to depict the human impact on the Earth. The painting captures a garden of foreign plants in a single household vase and incorporates a natural vegetable on the table. In making these natural objects common household objects, rather than allowing them to be freestanding in their natural state, Kadowaki illustrates the seizing and domination of the natural world by humanity, thus emphasizing human intrusion upon the natural world.

Roy Kadowaki, Japanese Garden (1937). View full-size image

The human impact shown through the displaced nature in this painting allows it to fall under the definition of bio-surrealism. Along with other bio-surreal pieces, this painting moves, in the words of William Myers, "beyond the passive (if poetic) position as a signature of civilization, to act as a lighthouse, or language-maker”; thus, in other words, bio-surreal art creates representations of the nature that speak for the land, as opposed to for humanity.

Art, specifically bio-surrealism, “is an infinitely complete focus of human experience” that helps us, as humans, realign our relationship with the world around us by presenting “ever-so-slightly disturbing” images presented here (Myers). The creation of bio-surreal art is intended to not only depict the daunting realities of our world but to instill fear in viewers in the hopes of inspiring a drastic change of heart and mind for environmental concerns. "We don't just need a climate bill," Lisa Margonelli writes; "I think we need a new way to conceptualize what we're going through. A 'new' surrealism."