The Traumatic Surreal

Marking the centenary of Surrealism, The Traumatic Surreal explores the appropriation and development of surrealist sculptural traditions by women artists in German-speaking countries after World War II.

The exhibition brings together sculptures and films made between 1964 and 2017 that explore women’s experiences in this context, using surrealist traditions to critique and subvert patriarchal constructions of women as ‘objects’.

Repeated motifs such as cages, an insistent concern with animal characteristics such as fur and feathers, and a questioning of the conventional association between women and domesticity indicate how women surrealists critiqued these restrictive and oppressive conditions.

The Traumatic Surreal addresses the complex legacy of geographically specific historical events that have impacted in powerful and long-lasting ways on women’s experience. In German-speaking countries the period following World War II was – and still is – deeply scarred by the events of the war and the fascist and Nazi ideologies that caused them, particularly in relation to the social construction, positioning and objectification of women.

The exhibition shows how surrealist traditions continue to provide these artists with productive forms through which these, and other, traumatic residues might be represented and negotiated. Embracing the capacity of surrealist art to shock or challenge, these artists show the continuing relevance of Surrealism’s disruptive potential.

Please note this exhibition contains adult themes and content of a sexual nature.

The Traumatic Surreal is co-curated with Patricia Allmer, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Edinburgh, and is based on her book of the same name, published by Manchester University Press, 2022.