Dreamt of Holding Him
The second post on my blogggg yayyy! Can’t believe I’m talking about surrealism this early. But this is a really interesting topic to explore on and it is so much more than Salvador Dali (ah I wish I can go to the Objects of Desire show it would be so much more to talk about). I’m not going to go all mad about Salvador Dali’s famous works in this blog, but I’m gonna focus on one work that I personally really enjoy, could be one of my favourites so far.
Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937) is another tribute of Dali’s to Sigmund Freud’s theory and interpretation of dreams as Dali drew this painting hoping to have a conversation with Freud about psychiatric analysis and the theory of narcissism. The original story of the Greek myth of Narcissus tells the tragic death of this handsome man and his suitor, Echo. After being rejected by Narcissus, she died wasting away with her voice remaining and repeating. The gods punished Narcissus to stare into his own reflection, he fell in love with himself in the water. But because his love is out of his reach, he eventually too, died in agony. His death formed a flower blooming upon the water, called by the Greeks as a narcissus.
Many of the features in this painting reflected upon the myth itself. The main objects in the painting are the white and beige figures. The white one is a hand holding an egg, with its cracking shell blooms a white daffodil (narcissus or jonquil). It has also come to attention that the hand is standing on the moon-shaped shore and the bottom of the hand there are several ants climbing up towards the daffodil. And the other beige - almost golden figure is a male curling up with his head resting on his left knee. Two of the figure’s shape can be exactly identical if we look at the painting a bit further, even the cracks on the head/egg are the same. This justified the story of the myth, with Dali adding his own interpretation. While my interpretation of these two figures, is that they represent the opposite idea of life and death. In many of Dali’s works, similar motives are used multiple times, like egg, ants, and melting clocks. The egg in this painting has been given the meaning of protection and birth by Dali, while the ants are symbolism of death as they would consume rotten flesh. The ants approaching to the egg threatens the life with in it, which is the daffodil blooming from the egg, which is also Narcissus, the man. With the hyena-shaped animal at the bottom right of the hand ripping flesh from a corpse, foretelling the death of Narcissus’s. At the same time the colour sliver gives a cold, lifeless illusion to the viewers, the egg in a hand seems so fragile at the same time. The cracking thumb nail enforced the sculptural identity of this hand and its symbolism of death. Comparing to this hand, the other subject is a body that is almost gloaming. Its curling posture made me related to the position of an infant inside its mother’s womb. It could represent the nirvana of narcissus, but as viewers we know the death of his is a point of no return, so I assume that Dali is referring to himself instead of our myth boi here. Like Narcissus, Dali used to stared into a pond of water himself, taking a photo as well, and his personality were also criticised to be incredibly narcissistic. Perhaps he is trying to say that his birth replaced the old, mythical beauty, at the same time acknowledging and accepting his narcissism. Perhaps his appearance is not what the common aesthetic would state as beautiful, but his frenzied creativity and charisma could conquer this world.
Or from another perspective, this piece, going in a left to right direction, retells the story of Narcissus’s, from left to right as in from birth to death, a summary of this story told in paint. If we keep on looking on the left, on the background behind the figure, we will see the smart little thoughts of Dali’s. On the very left the middle of the mountain cracked, splitting the mountain up into two, with a path from (or leading to) the unknown. Perhaps it is the road where all lives started their journey in the first place. Narcissus is soaked in the swaddling holy light, lowering his head, looking into the water, and helplessly fell in love with himself, drowned, painted in agony, head cracked, body curling from birth but also from torture, trodding towards death. Because Narcissus fell in love with himself, this could indicate the recognition of the former-marginalised homosexuality. The group of people dancing near the foot of the mountain are the heterosexuals. Pointing out the disregard of the “common” group towards the marginalised groups, and the feeling of pushed aside, censored and oppressed of the homosexual people. But in this painting, the heterosexuals became the marginalised, turned away by Narcissus. Looking further away from the dancing group to the left we see the sliver hand representing death, with the same posture as birth, Narcissus died in pain, his soul crushed by the hand of the gods, the same hand that made a flower bloomed. The road behind is hovered over by dark clouds, is the road to the Underworld. On the left side of the road, the man on the chess board is looking down, wanting to play a final game with the gods, he is holding, he is waiting, wasting by but still struggles before his very end, he is still trying to feel the one person he ever loved. But he had already stepped up to the read and black stage, as he falls he falls on the road to hell. The last bit of the blue sky, behind the road to Underworld, there’s a mimicking figure identical to the two main figures of the hand and the man, and that is the shadow of Echo, the nymph, as she died she still called Narcissus’s name, or imitating his posture, as a last tribute to her love.
I can say that Dali’s works are definitely the ones that made me stare, not look, but stare, over and over again, looking into the tiniest details just in case I may missed something important, and every time I stare, I will, and I will find or realise undiscovered treasures every single time. That is one of the biggest charismas of Dali’s and his dreamscapes. He invited you in, he invited you to become this crazy person, obsessed with shapes, bodies, sex, chaos and insects, as you yearn to prance through sliver pillars, deserts and lakes, and consenting to let them open ups your chest like a drawer, on a mountain, riding a one-legged elephant, holding a white daffodil.
我博客上的第二篇文章耶！我竟然这么早就开始聊超现实主义了哈哈哈。但这确实是个很值得探索的话题，它本身比萨尔瓦多·达利要多得多（啊好希望可以去Objects of Desire展上看看还能有好多可以说的）。我不会在这个文章里对萨尔瓦多·达利所有有名的作品都使劲夸夸夸，但我挑了一个我个人超喜欢的达利的一幅作品来讲，它可能是迄今为止我最喜欢的达利的作品之一了。
纳西索斯的变形（Metamorphosis of Narcissus）。此画作的故事来源于希腊神话中的俊美男子纳西索斯，不论男女，每个目睹过他的容颜的人都会疯狂的爱上他。仙女艾科（Echo）是其中一位追求者，在被纳西索斯拒绝之后在浑噩中死去，只有声音犹存，反复回响，于是回声这个名词便被希腊人称为Echo。而众神为了惩罚纳西索斯，命令他盯着自己水中的倒影，纳西索斯从未看到过自己的倒影。因为他惊为天人的美貌，纳西索斯爱上了水中这个俊美男子，但因为他无法触碰到自己的倒影，他也香消玉殒，死后的纳西索斯化作一朵花开在水中，而这种花则是现在所称的水仙花（Narcissus）。
这幅画里很多地方都对应了这个传说故事。首先关中最先看到的是两个黄色和白色的主题。其中右边的白色主体是一只手，手中拿着一个鸡蛋，鸡蛋裂开的壳中盛开着一朵水仙花。需要注意到的事这只手是在一个月牙形的岸上的，大拇指的根部有十几只蚂蚁在朝着水仙花的方向爬去。而另外这个左边的黄色-甚至是金色的主体，是一个蜷缩起来的男子，如果我们往后走观察就会发现这个男子的姿势和动作几乎和左边的手完全重叠。头上的裂痕也几乎和鸡蛋上的一模一样，这便应证了对神话内容的解读。而达利在其中加入了自己的理解。而我的理解是，这两个不同但有相同的主体，代表的是生和死两个对立的关系，为什么这么说呢？因为在达利的画作中，很多主题是被重复运用的，例如鸡蛋，蚂蚁，扭曲的时钟等等，而这幅画里出现的鸡蛋，被达利给予了保护和生育的意义，而蚂蚁则又是死亡的象征。画中蚂蚁爬向鸡蛋，是死亡对生命的威胁，而鸡蛋中生长的水仙花则代表的是纳西索斯，蚂蚁逼近盛放的水仙花，和手的右下角的一条鬣狗在啃食着一副尸骨，则代表着纳西索斯基将面临的死亡，与此同时，银色这个颜色会给人一种寒冷的错觉，鸡蛋在手中又是如此脆弱，龟裂的指甲让这只手看上去像个石膏雕塑，没有生机，死气沉沉，更加巩固了这只手就代表着死亡的象征意义。而这只手的对比，则是一个散发着金光，温暖的，有温度的肉体。蜷缩的姿势让我不禁想到了婴儿在母亲子宫中的样子，这似乎代表着纳西索斯的涅槃，但我们知道纳西索斯的死亡是一条不归路，我猜测达利其实是在暗示他自己，因为达利曾经也拍摄过一张自己眺望水中自己的照片，而他本身也是一个极度自恋的人，他或许是在说自己的诞生全然替代了以前老旧的传说，而他将成为最新的那个传说，同时也在这一立场上认知且认同了自己的自恋倾向。或许他的外貌并不是被世俗公认的美丽，但他的狂热创意还有人格魅力，却足以征服这个世界。
或者从另外一个角度来看，这一幅画从左到右的顺序讲述了一个故事，也就是纳西索斯的故事，从左到右，从出生到死亡，似乎就是这个故事的梗概。但如果我们继续看，看向主体后面的背景，我们可以看到达利精心布置的巧思。最左边开始的山中裂开了一条来头不明的路，代表的或许就是生命开始的那条路，襁褓圣光中的纳西索斯低着头，看到了水中的自己，无法自拔，裂开头颅，身体因为出生和折磨而蜷缩，即将步入死亡。但因为纳西索斯爱上的是自己，其中也有着对同性恋这个边缘群体概念的认知，而在这中间的一群跳舞的人们，则代表的是异性恋群体，远。离纳西索斯舞蹈的人们暗示了“普通人们“对曾经边缘化群体的漠视，同性恋群体所感受到的被排挤，被忽略，被压抑的痛苦。还有而在这幅画里，他们变成了边缘上的人们，被纳西索斯背弃。越过这些人们，我们到达了银色大手，即死亡，纳西索斯在蜷缩的痛苦中死亡，灵魂被众神的手碾压，但却使鲜花绽放。而后面的那一条路，上方被乌云笼罩，是通向死亡的冥府之路。而在路的左边，棋盘格上的男人低着头，似乎是在与众神和自己内心的博弈，是牵制，是忍耐，是浑浑噩噩度日中接近死亡的最后挣扎，他还在尝试着去感受到他所爱的那个人，但他早已站在红黑色的高台上，掉落便是掉入冥府的入口。最后那一片晴天，冥府之路的山后，有个和两个主体一样的银色物体冒出了头，这便是仙女艾科的影子。死去之后的她仍然在呼唤着纳西索斯的名字，或者说，模仿着他的样子，为她所付出的爱进行最后的致敬。
我可以说达利的作品绝对是让我看盯着，不是看，是盯着，一遍又一遍，盯着那些那些最细微的细节不放，以防错过重要的东西，但我每次却也都会发现未被我发现的宝藏。而我认为这是达利和他的梦境最大的魅力之一。他邀请你踏入这场梦，他邀请你成为一个疯子，一个痴迷于形状、身体、性、混乱和昆虫的疯子，让你渴望在银色的石柱、沙漠和湖泊中腾跃，并让他们把你的胸口像抽屉一样拉开，在一座山上，骑着一头独足的大象，手里拿着一支白色的水仙花。
Image source:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-metamorphosis-of-narcissus-t02343
