Dan Conroy
Dec 7, 2011
Art 345
Final Paper
Jan Svankmajer is a Czechoslovakian film maker who is most famous for his work with stop motion animation. His work is firmly rooted in surrealism, both through his involvement with the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group and the surreal aspects of his films, and he is regarded as “the only major film maker who’s work fully belongs to surrealism,” (Richardson, 11). Svankmajer’s work is very recognizable and intriguing to me. I really like the way he uses common materials like clay and food to tell stories and get his message across, often without any words. Though I have never tried stop motion, it has always had an aesthetic that has appealed to me and I would definitely like to try it in the future, especially after watching more of Jan Svankmajer’s work.
Svankmajer was born in Prauge, Czechoslovakia in 1939. On his eighth birthday he recieved a small puppetry theatre which would lead to his first venture into the world of fantasy and art. Later on in life, his fascination with marionettes continued as he attended the college of Applied Arts in the Puppetry Department. This is also where Svankmajer was first introduced to surrealist art forms which would later become the backbone of his work and life surrounding it, (Rogers).
Prague was both a place of birth and a source of inspiration for Svankmajer. Jan Uhde wrote that “It would be hard to imagine Svankmajer without Prague” in his essay entitled “Jan Svankmajer: Genus Loci As A Source Of Surrealist Inspiration. His interest in Prague is not that of contemporary society, however. Svankmajer and his work focus on the city’s old quarters, legends and ancient castle ruins. Svankmajer himself lives in one of Prague’s most ancient areas, just outside the Prague Castle walls. It is this connection to the the city and historical core which binds him and his art to the area. Many of his films were made in surrounding ruins, (Harper, 64), and one piece was even filmed at the Sedlec Ossuary, which contains the bones of some 70 thousand people, which had been buried there since the plauge’s of the Middle Ages, (Uhde). His fascination for such locations and morbid themes has been a theme since his school days when he was “criticized for a certain morbidity, sickness, negativism, and pessimism,” (French, 188). Regardless of early criticism, Svankmajer is a product of his environment and continues to use his surroundings and their history to shape his work and make it uniquely his own.
While Prague and the Bohemian region surrounding it are ever present in Svankmajer’s work and life, the communist government which ruled the country until 1989, did as much as they could to stifle his artistic productivity. From 1972 to 1979, he was banned from making films by the Czech Government as a result of his criticism of the regime in many of his films. Many of his other films during the period which were not banned were suppressed by the government and as a result, his work was largely unknown in the West until the 1980’s, (Rogers). The government was so against his work that his piece, Dimensions In Dialogue, “was used by the Czechoslovakian authorities as an object lesson in what was politically unacceptable,” (French, 188). In regard to the political stance in many of his films, Svankmajer said:
"I would like to say that I consider all of my films to be very politcally engaged. But I never narrowed it down to a totalitarian system, the way, for example, the artist dissident would. Because I realize that civilization does allow for the creation or existence of something as sick as Fascism or Stalinism, then the entire civilization itself is very ill, something is wrong," (Jackson).
It is this critique of society as a whole, based on his experiences with the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, that have garnered Svankmajer such acclaimed while at the same time addressing the issues and shortcomings of the communist regime in his homeland. Even after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Svankmajer still finds issue with politics and they way society is run as a whole, not limiting his rebellion to a fallen regime. “For Svankmajer, Stalinism was nothing but a particular emanation of the sickness of modern civilisation: the fact that consumerism has come to replace Stalinism does not reflect any improvement in the structure of society,” (Richardson, 133). His ability to adapt his art to the times is a key testament to his longevity in the art world and the success of his work.
Svankmajer’s work is unargueably surrealist, though he himself does not consider surrealism itself an art form. Instead he says, “Surrealism is psychology, it is philosophy, it is a spiritual way, but it is not an aesthetic. Surrealism is not interested in actually creating any kind of aesthetic,” (Jackson). This stance on surrealism and it’s connection to art is unabashedly surrealist in itself, as one of the major facets of surrealists is to “regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being and artifact,” (Surrealism Wiki).
I really appreciate the depth of Svankmajer’s work. His films are intriguing to me on many levels. The first one I saw, Meat Love, is a short, simple film involving two slices of meat interacting, eventually making love, and then being thrown into a pan full of hot oil. His stop motion style is instantly recognizable and refined, each shot obviously well thought out and presented as a small fraction of the whole. Like many of his works, the subject is food and it’s ultimate destruction. To Svankmajer, “the action of eating - and by implication of the act of creation itself - is ultimately destructive,” (Richardson, 126). This destruction a a thread that permeates many of his films, from the clay figures eating themselves and tearing each other apart in Dimensions In Dialogue, to decaying human made of fruit and vegetables in Flora.
Most of Svankmajer’s videos are very simple. He uses clay, marionettes, fruit, people and more as subjects, and through his stop motion, brings them to life in order to tell his story. I really admire his ability to make very accesable objects come alive. Most of his films also have a deep underlying sense of humor. He makes fun of his subjects, be they monkey puppets or clay humans, in order to poke fun at society as a whole. Though they may be tearing each other to pieces or jumping into frying pans, it is hard not to laugh at clay humans eating on their partners extremities or slices of red meat dancing on a cutting board.
I often have ideas for art floating in my head, but can never seem to put them into action exactly the way I want too. According to Svankmajer this is a result of an artistic block. “The artist is able to reach their resources, and overcome the block. But a clerk who sits in the office, obviously, has his blockage and cannot. This so-called ‘professionalism’, is much more a matter of technique, or skill than creativity. You can see that in naive art, or folk art, if an individual wants to express him or herself, they find a way to do it if they really want to. It is really inside me, what's going to come out. The way I see it, each individual accumulates in his or her lifetime. That which accumulates inside him or her needs to find a way out. Basically, everybody can do that, but most people do not find a way of releasing it, they have certain blockage. There is no such thing as talent" (Jackson). To be able to combine the techniques and skills that I have learned in this program with the creativity that is lodged in the back of my brain is one of my goals for this course and for all art I attempt to create.
What really draws me to Svankmajer’s work is his style. The quirky puppets and subjects, the humor and the dark undertones all work together and make for interesting pieces as a whole. His work has levels of political scrutiny, dark comedy and his own creativity that make them very unique and interesting on many levels. I really respect his ability to combine these themes into his films and make them work so well together. Though Svankmajer’s films usually deal with the oppressive government and now the rise of capitalism and consumerism, he makes them interesting on a different level and then allows the viewer to infer his real meaning behind the work. Though I will never have a communist regime to rebel against in my art, I would like to think that with time and thought I can address things that are going on around me in my future work.
Bibliography
French, Karl. Art by Film Directors. London: Octopus Publishing, 2004
Harper, Graeme; Stone, Rob. The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film, by Jan Uhde. London: Wallflower, 2007
Jackson, Wendy. “The Surrealist Conspirator: An Interview With Jan Svankmajer.” June, 1997. Animation World Magazine. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.3/issue2.3pages/2.3jacksonsvankmajer.html
Richardson, Michael. Surrealism and Cinema. Berg: New York, 2006.
Rogers, Pam. “The Works Of Jan Svankmajer.” 2002. Rosewood Graphics. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.rosewoodgraphics.us/jan.html
Voorhies, James. “Surrealism: Thematic Essay.” 2010. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm
Wikipedia. “Surrealism.” Dec, 2011. Wikipedia. Dec 6, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
Uhde. “The Bare Bones of Horror.” 2011. Kinoeye: New Perspectives on European Film. Dec 6, 2011. http://www.kinoeye.org/02/01/uhde01.php
