Abigail Susik, "Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work" (Manchester UP, 2021)
According to the definition offered by Tate on the occasion of the exhibition\xa0Surrealism Without Borders, Surrealism \u201caims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams.\u201d Surrealism, therefore, produces images and artefacts that are rooted outside the real and that evade rational description.\nFor many artists, however, the practice of Surrealist art took on an explicitly political and therefore practical dimensions. In\xa0Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work\xa0(Manchester UP, 2021), art historian Abigail Susik argues that many Surrealists tried to transform the work of art into a form of unmanageable anti-work.\nAbigail Susik speaks with Pierre d\u2019Alancaisez about what the politics of work meant to the early French Surrealists, the ambiguous labour practices of artists like Simone Breton, and the imagery of typewriters and sewing machines that permeates the work of artists such as Oscar Dom\xednguez. She brings these questions into the present by engaging with the work of the Chicago Surrealists of the 1960s and 70s.\nAbigail Susik\xa0is Associate Professor of Art History at Willamette University and co-editor of\xa0Surrealism and film after 1945.\n\nMan Ray,\xa0S\xe9ance de r\xeave \xe9veiill\xe9\n\n\nOscar Dom\xednguez,\xa0Machine \xe0 coudre \xe9lectro-sexuelle\n\n\n\nSurrealism Without Borders\xa0at Tate Modern\n\nAbigail\u2019s op-eds in the\xa0Washington Post\xa0and\xa0New York Times\n\n\nAbigail\u2019s forthcoming book\xa0Radical Dreams\n\n\nPierre d\u2019Alancaisez\xa0is a contemporary art curator, cultural strategist, researcher. Sometime scientist, financial services professional.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies