Daniela Georgieva: Leonora Carrington & Her Surrealist Animals

We're delighted to be starting our March theme of Surrealism off with a talk by Daniela Georgieva on the writer and artist Leonora Carrington.A sophisticated game of table tennis in which Hummingbirds take the role of the ball, preparing a meal with vegetables that throw themselves into a cauldron filled with boiling water, a dinner table rich with wine, fruit, and caterpillars transforming into butterflies, a half-human, half-beast girl flying towards the moon with feathers shining like snow in the sun. These are a few of the fantastical scenes seen in the art and writing of Leonora Carrington. Outlandish and as charming as they are bizarre, Carrington’s characters are presented as myth and satire. The figures on her canvases come to life through comedy and tragedy, their entrance provokes eyebrow-raises and their departure leaves a bitter-sweet taste. Carrington’s art is deeply personal, often intertwining with her own life and experience and no such symbol displays this as Carrington’s animals. From a white stallion to a feral hyena, to animal-human hybrids, to understanding Carrington’s life and art one needs to look no further than the animals dancing across her canvases. Exploring the way they transform throughout the years and the different ways in which they are represented, while still carrying deep personal meaning, Carrington’s animals present the true soul behind the artist, sometimes even more so than her self-portraits. Daniela Georgieva is a PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London with a focus on Surrealism. She has obtained a Master’s Degree in Art History and a Bachelor’s in film. Her studies focus on the art and writing of Leonora Carrington, folklore, the fantastical, and the Occult. She is a painter herself and often applies her knowledge of painting and the arts to her research.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.comImage: 'Self Portrait' by Leonora Carrington