The Great Masturbator-Dalí

The Great Masturbator,1929, oil on canvas, Salvador Dalí

Certainly  this composition allows us vivid insight into Dalí's sexual fantasies, which were often violent, and his fear of the dangers of carnal love, which is symbolized mainly by the grasshopper. In contrast, the lion's head inscribed in the masturbator's face-at the point where it merges into the female body- with its lolling tongue and wildly rolling eyes stands for the impossibility of controlling erotic lust. Dalí's fear of sexually transmitted diseases is manifest in the fellatio that does not take place between the naked woman and the male torso in front of her face, whose penis appears to be strangely "abstract". Dalí took great care to point out that the contours of the face with its elongated nose were inspired rock formations at Cap de Creus. This painting came into being while the artist was under the influence of his first passionate encounter with Gala, and it mirrors Dalí's yearning for and at the same time deep-seated fear of a union with this fascinating woman. After all, at that point in time Dalí professed to have only masturbated and never performed coitus.

All of that is evident in The Great Masturbator. But the painting itself, as smooth and fine as alabaster, is much more than a subjective avowal-just as for Dalí sexuality always meant more than purely individual,psychological libido. To him, eroticism, beyond all conventional morality and also beyond physical satisfaction, was a protective wall against the certainty of death, making it a life principle par excellence. Like other means for attaining "enlightenment of the soul", sexual passion served as a hallucinogenic medium, with the help of which transcendent experiences could flow into the painting. It is for good reason that in Dalí's later thinking eroticism became the "royal path to the soul of God" because as he put it, it is inherent in all molecular structures.

The translation of erotic sexual fantasies into pictorial compositions and suggestive visualizations- more often than not with obsessive zeal- therefore become a highly effective method of laying a foundation for "shared dreaming". What could be better suited to creating  common ground between the artist and the observer than their common existential experience of eros!

Source: Salvador Dalí, Norbert Wolf

Ambrosia

Breathing Love

'I am a sky where spirits live.
Stare into this deepening blue,
while the breeze says a secret.

Like this.'

 -Rumi

It's almost as if i've come a full circle, literally and metaphorically. Arrived where i started from-myself!

From being a blind sculptor,the abstract tree, one of the 3 cats in a bin,the feather pen of a diary,a nosy boss, a compass, a demanding weaver,a lonely sharpener in a pencil box,a rigid sun,a hyperventilated designer, a confused foetus to an abstract painter or 'banwri'! Played many parts, created and destroyed, and at times, even rendered useless!

These past 4 years of my association with Centre for Creative Expressions,Karmic Research Centre (to know more:http://krcindia.org/ )has been divine. Not only because of the people i met there and connected to but because of it being an instrument or an inspiration to work with myself, which by the way i realized i love doing! It has been a subtly selfish journey,whether it be meditations,numerous theatre workshops (particularly 'Deewano ki  Mehfils') or just being ME, i.e. tangible and intangible, lower self and higher self,real and 'maya'...everything and nothing!

Me, who took up this path of being a seeker, exploring with expression and love, undeterred and courageous, with occasional bumps of fear and confusions, withdrawals and guilt, but the path still remains... LIT as it always was. . .

Resplendent with Universe's incandescent energies of all kind from the so-called negative to positive, learning to use each one of them with the right INTENT.Yes, my journey with the self(/centre) can be summarized with work around this one word. INTENT OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Quite an abstraction! They're like some of the words and concepts (Meditation and happiness being another) which can't be described or explained or defined objectively! But can definitely be experienced. I do have an inkling and can proudly claim that i HAVE experienced them and have been privileged enough to realize them, allowing myself to be open to all kinds of energies involved in it, whether they are intellectual or emotional,(or again so called negative to positive)

And may be i would never be able to define such words in 'words' and may be i don't even want to! Coz i cherish those Moments! I go by experience...always have and i quite admire this quality about myself,otherwise i would never have had such experiences (which includes meeting/'working' with some amazing people that i have/am/will) Sometimes, words don't mean a thing, and that's where the 'experience' part seeps in. It's like a visualization that you see in your mind or a rythm that rings in your ears or a choreography that makes you dance! 

I'm not gifted with words(for better or worse?) but i am gifted (like numerous other children of universe) with the ability to experience this Intent and Unconditional Love and a vehicle to share it by inviting you to this indescribable and indefinable experience! and That... I often do... with eclectic approaches and techniques! Who would understand and feel this better than Aks, your reflection!? =)

PS: And yes, Love is a selfishly unselfish act, but it's definitely NOT a Commodity! It's not malicious or polluted either. It's difficult, yet it is essential! And one of the uniqueness of this Act is that you cannot ACT it out! Rather...you won't be able to! You won't be able to cheat or pretend or wear a mask! and still it is a theatre of life, and we all must play our parts! ;)

Khunuk ân kas ke chu mâ shud, hame taslîm u rezâ shud
Geruv-e 'ishq u junûn shud, guhar-e bahr-e safâ shud.

 

'Happy the one who has become like us;
who has become all surrender and contentment;
Who has become the pledge of love and madness;
who has become a jewel in the sea of purity.'

-Rumi

Hare Krishna!

Dream designer!

Salvador Dalí and Films

1929 : Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) is a silent surrealist short film by the Spanish director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí.

The film has no plot in the conventional sense of the word. The chronology of the film is disjointed, jumping from the initial "once upon a time" to "eight years later" without the events or characters changing very much. It uses dream logic in narrative flow that can be described in terms of then-popular Freudian free association, presenting a series of tenuously related scenes.

source : wikipedia

At the beginning, there's a famous scene of a man played by Buñuel sharpening his razor who sees a narrow cloud approaching the moon. Followed by the razor cutting through an eye. This has come to be regarded as a motif that stands for the optic nerve, and thus the destruction of everyday perception as such.

source:Salvador Dalí, Norbert Wolf

eyeball scene

To see the complete movie open the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVr7yx0pn0&feature=related

1930: L'Age d'Or(The Golden Age). A surrealist film collaboration of Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí.

See the complete movie in 8 parts

part1  part2 part3 part4 part5 part6 part7 part8 

1944: Spellbound . The Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock approached Salvador Dalí who designed the famous dream sequence for the movie.

dream sequence-Salvador dali

PS: This dream sequence holds a special place in my endeavor of art and psychology.

2003:Destino (destiny)  is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. 

source:wikipedia

 destino