Dr Mette Kia Krabbe Meyer (The Royal Library, Copenhagen)
Womanimalobject: Dissolving borders in the work of Danish Surrealist Wilhelm Freddie
In the interwar years, the mass media made possible the spread of French surrealist works and writings throughout Europe. The Danish surrealists were quick to pick up motifs and ideas from the French. Thus it is easy to see Danish surrealism as a pale copy of Parisian surrealism, and of course we should be wary of uninspired plagiarism. Yet at the same time we should recognize the creative potential of true inspiration and not be anachronistic censors of a movement which welcomed cooperation and which to some extent broke with the practice of revering the unique artwork made by the lone genius artist.
Danish surrealist Wilhelm Freddie offers a journey into a world where borders are dissolving: not only the borders between the object and the body, fragment and whole (entities often mixed in surrealism), but also between mass media images and artworks, the artist's body and the artworks. Freddie manipulated numerous female muses and models, but he also invested his own body in a playful game with identity. He played deliberately with his likeness to Dali and used self-portraits in objects and photomontages which challenge sexual and human identity.
Danish surrealist Wilhelm Freddie offers a journey into a world where borders are dissolving: not only the borders between the object and the body, fragment and whole (entities often mixed in surrealism), but also between mass media images and artworks, the artist's body and the artworks. Freddie manipulated numerous female muses and models, but he also invested his own body in a playful game with identity. He played deliberately with his likeness to Dali and used self-portraits in objects and photomontages which challenge sexual and human identity.
