Dada

[Nemonymous]

Is Dada the most important Art Movement? Dada - if you read the manifestos from the early 20th century - seems to be the the most comfortable home for the Horror Arts. In that death and its causes or repercussions can be embroidered at will with no fear of comeback. But a fear that is real inasmuch as literature or art is real. The only way. Otherwise, it is Nothing. Zero.


The Baser Pulps



"From the cosmic point of view, to have opinions or preferences at all is to be ill." --Lawrence Durrell

[Mr. D.]

I can only picture Dada in connection with WWI. To me Dadaism was a protest, a form of anti-art, that was both a protest of and a reflection of the war that changed the whole world forever. After the war ended the movement quickly ended, but other movements came out of the Dadaism and those movements have been very influential for the last 90 years.
I would say that Surrealism is the art movement that has been most important for all of the arts and all genres except westerns. The sculpture "Nude Descending a Staircase", the films "The Cabinet of Dr.. Caligiri", "Nosferatu" and "The Andalusian Dog" and much of the literature of the 1920s set the tone for what we read and see today. Of course, Surrealism comes out of Dada, but in a much more useful and effective form.
Mr. D.

[Nemonymous]

It's just that, objectively, without recourse to possible 'intentions', the Horror Art concerned with Death, Pointlessness, Nihilism, Puppets, Dolls, Corpses, Clowns (in up front representation rather than subtler surrealification) is more akin to Dada than any other art movement. Imho.

[Doktor Eisenbart]

Yes I agree with Nemonymous. Unlike Dada, Surrealism seems to have a meaningful or at least an anthropomorphically conscious relationship with the elements of horror. The failure of the original surrealism mission lies in its persistence on ‘liberating’ humans from the quotidian life of the bourgeoisie society by offering them a pseudo-mystical solution so humans can transcend themselves by rediscovering their relationship with the elements of horror (i.e. the cosmic abyss). But this relationship is for the most part is conducted through a naïve approach to the unconscious in a way that surrealism fundamentally becomes an attempt to capture or latch onto the unconscious. The return to the unconscious proves inanely misguiding, once we realize that the unconscious is indeed the lair of the Death Within and death like all other elements of horror (time, void, etc.) is utterly undecodable, for it has no logic, no desire, no idea, no objective, no ontological status, no continuity to us whatsoever. Therefore, any attempt to decode the unconscious is only an ‘anthropomorphically fruitful’ recoding of death based on the petty problems or concerns of human beings. In fact if surrealism survived better than Dada, it is because its inherently anthropocentric ideas where picked up by later Avant-garde or rebellious movements to which death can be artistically fruitful (at least financially!). ... but death cannot be the host of our onanistic hobbies for survival.

[Nemonymous]

The Dadaist loves the extraordinary, the absurd, even. He knows that life asserts itself in contradictions, and that his age, more than any preceding it, aims at the destruction of all generous impulses. Every kind of mask is therefore welcome to him, every play at hide and seek in which there is an inherent power of deception. The direct and the primitive appear to him in the midst of this huge anti-nature, as being the supernatural itself.
--Hugo Ball, 'Dada Fragments' (1916)

[Doktor Eisenbart]

Dada’s embracing of death goes even beyond a thematic orientation. Dadaism presents itself as a spontaneous death-conscious movement. For Dadaism, all that matters is the death of Dada. But since everything is already dead from the outset including Dada, Dadaism as a movement is not but a necrophilic mirror image of modernity.

Dadaism is mistakenly perceived as a reactionary hyperbole against humans and society. Yet it is exactly the opposite: the notion of humanity and society in general are reactionary knee-jerks against death and its hollow minions.

[Nemonymous]

Some inspiring thoughts there, [COLOR=#ff9966]Doktor Eisenbart[/COLO"]THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK - View Profile: Doktor Eisenbart@@AMEPARAM@@View Profile: Doktor Eisenbart</title>@@AMEPARAM@@Doktor Eisenbart. Thanks. Or perhaps should I say downspiring where inspiring & upspiring do depend on which way the cone is positioned? Duchamp's urinal is like a cone.

There's a parallel slightly overlapping discussion thread on Dada vis a vis the Horror genre here:
http://shocklinesforum.yuku.com/topic/3489
with what I thought to be an intereting take on photorealism.

[Doktor Eisenbart]

Thanks Nemonymous; I just scanned it quickly, will read the whole thread later tonight.

“A nagging persecution to find a complex home for Horror.” (Nemonymous)

Astonishing! Although it might prove quite absurd and frustrating (after all, we all have built our houses on horror!) but this should be the mission of all human thoughts and creativity.

I, too, always dream of philosophy as an expertise in finding horror its true home, calculative and efficient like a realtor with no attitude or consideration whatsoever.

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by Doktor Eisenbart

“A nagging persecution to find a complex home for Horror.” (Nemonymous)

The productiveness of that is counterproductive because it sends one quite beyond help from sane mortals.

[albie]

Dada surely fails to be anti-art because it is still art and collected and examined just as any art is.
Horror is intended to have an emotional impact, not to take away from the reader, but to add.
Although you could make a case that Ligottian horror takes away hope, and the facades we put up to protect our hope. (having said that I think he equally adds more levels of hope that appear to be madness and despair.)

I don't know if dada was ever that deep a movement. We would need an honest manifesto of theirs to compare. I fear attaining such a thing would be impossible due to the infinitely swirling cloaks of nonsense dada manifests.

Contradiction would abound.

But then haven't I just made the case that Ligotti's horror is contradictory?

Methinks I have strayed into the swirling cloaks...and the lights of my house are reflected infinitely around me...

(sorry)