Travelling back through a double time tunnel, 40 years to it's publication and 30 to it's creation, here we look at Eduardo Paolozzi's Psychological Atlas. Handsome, isn't it? Yes? No? OK, it depends on your aesthetic preferences. But "Darling, shabby handmade chic is divine!"
It was put together in 1949 whilst Paolozzi was in Paris, no doubt intoxicated by the still-heady remaining aroma of Dada and Surrealism which lingered on, did it not, for another two decades at least? So many artists of the 50s and even 60s would inhale both movements and breath their essence into sculptures, collage, painting and whatever else artists get up to - eh?
Excuse me, I myself am slightly intoxicated by sniffing Paolozzi's Psychological Atlas, even though it does not smell of anything in particular, not old and musty but in surprisingly good condition therefore not in the least smelly.
The images are funky, though. Crude, comical, early collages in scrapbook form depicting fantastical scenarios featuring robots, machinery and cut-out characters, of course. If it's a psychological atlas it also acts as a series of road maps for future obsessions. There is always more going on with Paolozzi than meets the eye...philosophical and literary investigations, a fascination with juxtapositions, the meaning of which may only be clear to him or, not even clear, but subconscious, dream-like in the classic Surrealist manner.
A fantastic little book.
Here's an old collage I made in 2013...it's equally crude...
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| Machine-Woman, RTomens, 2013 |
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