It is said that surrealism is the refutation of logic. In the dreams and visions of an artist -we are shown images that evoke madness and an underlying focus of demented energies. It is said that surrealism is a dismantling of reality. It is intimated that such an expression comes out of the Id and in some ways has no meaning or concourse. I believe that although this has merit – it is an evasive thing. Inside the wall of the intellect there is indeed a layer or crust of insanity but below that layer is something deeper. This deeper core inside the soul is the place of the ‘Tale’. This deeper essence is a thing of a clarified narrative -whereby the eternal journey is stated. This journey is a thing that comes out of what has been rejected by the ego and cast aside into the darkness. We have lost this root of being and so it becomes a thing of division and desolation. The ‘Tale’ is the stuff of art and creativity. It is not Surreal or even a negation of the outside world. It is a deeper, internalized logic and sense.
Everyone is a part of the story that unfolds before us. The Path is us -and the way within is our only fate. We accept such a hidden path as our vocation. We are surrounded by the symbols and metaphors of our lives. They are encapsulated within our purpose and dedication when we create and shape. As we invent ourselves we invent God and in so doing we are enlarged in some way. The Tale remains in our souls. It is kept inside our bodies like a reservoir of energies. When we make our art out of nothingness we are prophets who foresee the unfolding of this play. We are actors who enact this theatre of dreams. Surrealism is not a mad urge to put down nonsense and morbid fragments of what has been left behind. Surrealism is a meaningful thing.
This is where the ‘Tale’ comes into being. We are often in a state of crisis -where we have been faced with the negation of life. We are inundated with the forces of darkness and insanity. We are caught in the muck of the unconsciousness and cannot extricate ourselves from this irrational essence. Somehow we come through and dislodge the Truth. We know that this wall of death is somehow less jarring and threatening than we supposed. We are now tapping into the infinite -and we are faced with the Tale. This is the narrative that we are all involved in. This is the rising and the falling -where we are no longer kept inside the sequence of Time. We have lost the imprisoned reality of outside concourse. We are now involved in music as well as rhythm.
We know the Tale as a thing that draws all together. The mystery of the universe is only equalled by the mystery of the self. The madness and nonsense so quickly dies -and we now create images of character and irony. What was supposed to be madness is now seen as metaphor. We are able to understand and to taste such beauty with our heads and hearts. We are now evoking the reality of the soul. Such a Tale is now a thing not separate from our ordinary lives. Body and spirit are together. Will and Tale are merged into one thing. Madness is now realized as a deeply provocative thing. It is a relationship and not an isolated urge of an ‘Outsider’ or a man apart from society. Art is a coming forth -and not a going away. It is a way of reuniting with what we have lost. It is the Tale -and in its telling we are made whole. In the tale -we celebrate that old trope of Good and Evil. We are made stronger with the tension of joy and despair.
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