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“Meshes of the Afternoon”: A Surreal Touchstone Wednesday, August 26, 2009
School’s back, and in this blog post, UTC graphic design student and CreateHere fellow TJ Bowman remembers, fondly, a moment of learning abroad.
Last winter while I was visiting London, I made the usual stops; Big Ben, the Eye, the Globe Theater, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, Stonehenge, et cetra. The gem of the trip, however, was none of the above. It was the Tate Modern. I could go on for days and days about how and why this museum is the place I want my ashes spread but I’m not going to. Instead I’m going to give you the first Surrealist film I’ve ever watched, and I’m assuming, for most of you, that it will be your first as well. Lucky for us, it’s a great one by husband and wife duo, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, titled Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
On the DVD release, Maya Deren; Experimental Films 1943-58, she comments about the film, saying, “This film is concerned with the interior experiences of an individual. It does not record an event, which could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience.”
After further research, I later came to find that the idea was in large part influenced by Hammid and after Deren began to receive all the glory for the work, as she typically did, their marriage began to suffer. After their divorce, Deren added classical Japanese music from her third husband, Teiji Ito to the film (talk about surreal!).
This film was part of an extensive Surrealism exhibit on the second floor of the Tate Modern of January 2009. Out of all the works from every media type, which there was a plethora of, this one was and still is my favorite piece. I also saw several Paul McCarthy films, which… I won’t go into.
Enjoy!
Watch Meshes of the Afternoon, in two parts, here and here.
By TJ Bowman, Platform Fellow
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