Collage 

Editor: This mixed-media collage, simply titled "Collage" by Toyen, is incredibly striking. The assortment of seemingly unrelated images – a figure in what looks like a torture device, decorative pillows, garments – feels unsettling, almost like a collection of repressed memories. What do you see in this piece from a historical perspective? Curator: This collage really highlights how Toyen challenged the restrictive societal norms of her time. It is a potent example of interwar artistic exploration, specifically regarding how the medium of collage and photomontage became associated with Surrealism’s project to unleash unconscious desires into the public realm. The juxtaposition of clinical imagery with domestic objects implicates how even the home could feel like a site of captivity. How do you react to the imagery related to domesticity? Editor: I find it particularly disturbing to see domestic elements juxtaposed with what seems to be an image of punishment, almost a technological extension of that impulse. It makes me think about societal expectations placed on women at the time. The image as a whole certainly questions our comfort with gendered assumptions. Do you think that interpretation aligns with its history? Curator: Absolutely. Surrealists like Toyen recognized how "irrationality" wasn't something exterior, a matter of “madness," but structured the institutions all around us. The image almost becomes an activist tableau, challenging and troubling what art and, moreover, the society, had tried to ignore. Perhaps, it asks us to reconsider how even mundane imagery and items contain within them histories of violence and power? Editor: I'm struck by how the act of collage itself, the piecing together of disparate elements, embodies the fractured reality and subversive nature of the work's intent. Thank you for highlighting the history behind it, as it brings new nuance to what I thought about the image's subject matter. Curator: And thank you for reminding us how powerful visual associations are to unpacking not only Surrealism’s but, more broadly, the history of 20th century imagery.