Christina Heflin: The Authenticities of the Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse

Today we hear from Christina Heflin for the final episode on surrealism.Eileen Agar’s wearable sculpture, The Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse , has a peculiar story that has never been acknowledged by scholars. In each of its images – from either archives, catalogs, publications or film footage – the hat appears to be a different object. Did Agar make an entire series of these hats like the myriad series of objects she created over the years? It would appear so, but since neither the artists nor prior scholarship address this issue, it is hard to determine the truth. This paper aims to establish The Hat ’s narrative and to explain that the hat was a singular, evolving work of art rather than a series. This is not only for the sake of knowing the scope of Agar’s oeuvre , but also to understand the way this important British Surrealist artist worked. The images of The Hat have a range of dates spanning from the late 1930s to 1995, when it arrived in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s permanent collection following Agar’s death. The hat’s life, very much like that of the artist’s, changed and developed over time. I argue that even though this colorful inverted cork basket adorned with both natural and manmade décor features different elements in each photograph, it remains the same work of art. It thereby retains what is essential, what Benjamin calls its aura . Its identity and authority remain indelible despite these changes.Contributor bio:Christina Heflin recently completed her PhD at Royal Holloway University of London where she worked on Surrealism, materialism and marine life. Her thesis is titled Submerged Surrealism: Science in the Service of Subversion . She is currently a lecturer at Parsons Paris and is the author of the book chapter on “Surrealism in England” for the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Surrealism as well as the article “Jean Painlevé’s Surrealism, Marine Life & Non-Ocular Modes of Sensing” for the Cross-Cultural Studies Review (2020) and “Eileen Agar’s Science” for The Modernist Review (2019). You can find her on Twitter - @christy_heflin.Technecast: This episode is presented by Felix Clutson.The Technecast is funded by the Techne AHRC-DTP, and edited by Polly Hember, Julien Clin & Felix Clutson.Contact: [email protected] / @technecast / @pollyhember / @ClinJulienRoyalty free music generously shared by Steve Oxen. FesliyanStudios.com